About War and Peace

There are some things that I must make clear. I am not a member of a political party, and what I write I believe to be true, although I do not always have the factual evidence for it.

Someone once said – "War is Hell". If that is true then we have been through hell many times. During both the world wars our country paid a very high price for freedom, but we lived through it. After World War II, under Tito we had 45 years of preparation for war. Every generation in our country knows what war is.

You learn to cope with hardship. During the UN sanctions and embargo between 1992 and ‘94 we developed alternative lines of supply, so we never actually run out of fuel, food, and other necessities. One should keep in mind, that we produce food, livestock, electricity and coal, and some oil. And because we are a small country, it's easy to take a trip to the border and purchase all you need, plus some extra to sell later.

So now we are getting along. People are driving their cars, public transportation is operational, there is enough food, and farmers are making their stock of fuel and spare parts for the upcoming harvest.

The bombing is something else. At first I was scared and spent most of the time in a cold, dusty shelter, waiting for the bomb to fall down and end the misery I was going though. But, as the time passed, I realized that I have to stay alive, stay normal, and stop living underground. One American told me on the internet that America will only go to war to protect its lifestyle. So, I decided that they can't beat us, as long as I have my life, my friends, warm bed and proper meal. From that day, neither I, nor any of my friends went underground. We even climbed up the tall buildings to observe the bombing of our town. Nowadays no-one is scared any more. The morale of the people is very high, and we even make jokes about this situation. We are prepared to fight NATO and the US until the bitter end.

I do not think many outside Yugoslavia understand the problems with the Kosovo Albanians. It dates back to at least 1945. After the Second World War President Tito announced a plan for "unity and brotherhood" and in it asked all nationalities in Yugoslavia to forgive and forget the past and the victims, and to try to live in peace. For some 40 years that plan was successful, but after Tito died, old enemies resumed hostilities.

The first Albanian uprising was in 1980 when after three days of demonstrations the army and police arrested a number of Kosovo Albanian political leaders including Enver Hodza , and the rebellion was quelled. But our state failed to exterminate the core of the terrorist organization that proclaimed "greater Albania" and was behind the rebellion. Yet for the next 10 years, we lived with the Albanians in relative peace.

But in the late 80's, Albanian terrorists tried new tactics. First they choose a village with a largely Albanian population. They offered to buy the few Serbian houses, and if they refused the terrorists killed their cattle, set their fields on fire. Some people were killed and raped. It became a clear trend and I remember cases in the court. There was a Mr.Martinovic. Two Albanians put a bottle in his ass. There was also a nun from Pecka Patrijarsija, who was raped.

You can read about these times in Russian Consul, a book by Vuk Draskovic.

The end of story was that Serbs started to leave the province, selling and fleeing their homes, or moving to villages with larger Serbian populations. The President at that time – Mr Stmabolic – was unable to do anything, so our current Mr. Milosevic, conspired with the police and the rest of the politicians, seized the power and proclaimed himself the new president of Serbia.

The Albanians reacted quickly, but the army was prepared, and in the following months quelled any demonstrations or rebellion. Because of repeated attempts at rebellion Mr. Milosevic decided to disband the assembly of Kosovo, and once for all finish the dream of "greater" Albania.

But Milosevic failed to finish the Kosovo problem once and for all. He was pre-occupied with other problems. The former Yugoslavia was falling apart. War started in Slovenia, Croatia and later in Bosnia. While this was happening the Albanian terrorists were organizing their state within a state and going world wide to find sponsors.

I am sure that the majority of the Albanians are against the war, against the idea of "greater" Albania, and against the terrorism. But, in every population you have warmongers, who are driven by ideals, money or power, and they can pull the whole nation into war. We experienced the same thing between 1991 - 1994. Most of us want peace to return. We are happy to have peaceful Albanians living with us.

Our government says it, and my friends and I believe that their safe return is the only right way. Have you noticed that there have been no demonstrations against Albanians in Yugoslavia?. Even Vojvoda Seselj, the ultra right Radical Party President never says anything against Albanians in general. We don't hate them, we are not against them, and most of all, we don't do ethnic cleansing, mass raping and concentration camps.

But, on the other hand, those Albanians who are now in the KLA must be captured, tried and sentenced. When peace comes, I am sure that we (both Serbs and Albanians) will be able to live together, but only if the KLA is exterminated, their political leaders who dreamed about "greater Albania" tried and sentenced, and if US and NATO stop helping those 5% of the people who lead the rest of them.

Mr Milosevic is our President, but I never liked him. We have had an election, but no real democracy. The election was only held to justify the situation which already existed. I protested against Milosevic in 1990, 1992, and 1996-97. During the protests in 1992 I actively helped organize demonstrations, and again in 1996-97 I was in the leadership of the demonstrations.

I never liked him, never. He lost two wars, and left some 300.000 Serbs to be killed, raped or tortured under Croats and Moslems. He is slow to act, reluctant to kill and undetermined to finish what he started. Or should I say he was? Because now, for the first time in his presidency, he decided to consult, ask advice and make plans with other politicians. The US and NATO have only made things worse as he has gained the support of the whole country, and even those like me are quiet now because we are all united against the US and NATO.

But in a way I can’t blame America or France or Germany. I don’t believe in collective guilt and over the internet I see and talk every day to people from those countries who are against the bombing, and think their government or their president is wrong . No, I direct my blame to those who are in control of this aggression – the US president, his cabinet, and their puppets in the NATO countries.

It is clear that NATO is ruled by the US. Most of the peace talks we witness are between some country and the US. Occasionally France or Germany is invited to talk about a solution of the crisis, but England is omitted completely. One must ask why this is so?

I will try to produce an answer. First, US keeps telling us, that they are not at war with the Serbian people. They are our friends. Even Albright gave a speech in Serbian language, but deeds speak more than 100 words. If US wanted to help us, they had a chance in 1992, when Milan Panic was running for President of the state. And in 1996-97 US had a clear chance not only to help us, but to end the rule of president Milosevic.

They failed both times.

In the military operations in Croatia, US bombed our people, and during the ethnic cleansing in Republic of Kinskakrajna, US was silent as some 300.000 people were driven out of their homes by the Croats. Same thing happened in Bosnia. Some US newspapers called our president The Butcher from Belgrade, and for much of the time CNN was broadcasting false video clips, rumors and Hollywood taped material.

Worst of all, the US is helping terrorists, and does it in public. I have a picture, released through AP, showing US soldiers in their uniforms in New York, wearing UCK (Albanian for KLA) patches, under the US flag. Other evidence can be found in The New Rome and the New Religious Wars on the website of International Strategic Studies Association. The US cannot claim to have good intentions when it is involved in terrorism.

The US also acts as an Air Force to the KLA. I have to tell you that the OSCE observation mission with your Wallace in command, was only a cover up for US special forces, who spied, located and marked targets in Kosovo, and the rest of the country.

Armed international forces in our country would not work. In Croatia, they betrayed those people they should have defended. In Bosnia they are worse than occupation forces, and Macedonia is a clear example of how welcomed those forces are.

The US started this war to force us to sign a non existing treaty with the Albanians but realizing we were not going to surrender they have started to destroy our land and attacked civilians.

They have committed many atrocities, and I want to comment on two in particular. The first is the bombing of Radio Televizija Beograd (RTS ). They bombed only one part of the building, as the rest of it is empty in the night shift. They could have bombed the transmitter tower near the building, but they levelled three floors, killing more than 15 people.

The transmitter tower near the building is still intact. Every small kid in Yugoslavia knows that main TV transmitter is Avala tower, without it our TV is blind. But it was two week later before they destroyed the Avala tower. Our TV continues to broadcast from other locations, using a war studio and alternative broadcast techniques like satellite. They have had no real effect. Last night I saw Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio.. :)))))

The other thing I want to talk about is the "soft" graphite bomb they are using to cut power supplies and disable the power grid network. The US and NATO say that without power our air defence and computers are useless. That is not true. The army has it's own power generators and our old IC night visors work better if there is no light from the city to interfere with light from enemy planes and missiles. Why do they bomb the power network, one may ask? To provoke panic. In a single minute the whole town is left in dark. People are trapped in lifts, others may be in surgery or on life support machines. One can only guess how much food is destroyed when the refrigerators melt down; how many cars crash without street and traffic lights. Without power the city is also without water – lack of clean water leads to infection and disease.

The US needs a quick end, and they think they can achieve that by attacking civilians. They are wrong. We will fight to the end. We don’t have any option. And the poor Albanian people are in an even worse position, with the KLA on the ground, and the US (NATO) in the air. And as the bombs fall and destroy what they built for generations, they have little choice, but to seek refugee in some other country.

I don't say that our military and police are without any guilt, but this is war, and there is little mercy in the war. There are atrocities on both sides, and we will be glad to put them on trial, together with those who gave order to bomb us. All or no one.

Every time I connect to the net I meet many wonderful people from other countries who offer me their help, shelter and support. And for that I am very grateful. Even in the US most of the people knows only what they see on CNN.

They are not to blame for what is going on here, as they (even living in a democracy) have little or no chance to intervene if their government goes in a wrong direction. I find the people of most nations friendly. Certainly no less friendly than they used to be, even Americans. I have travelled around the world (been to Australia in 1985), and I hope I will travel the world again.

Until then, let us hope that peace is at hand. . .