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.