-Caveat Lector- >From zmag.org/debray.htm > <Picture> > > for the original French: > http://www.lemonde.fr/actu/international/exyougo/kosovo/articles/99051 > 3/debray.htm Translated by: Chavdar Naidenov > > > A Letter from a Traveler to the President of the Republic > By R�gis Debray > > > On my return from Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo, I consider it my duty > to deliver to you an impression of mine: I fear, Mr. President, that > we may be going the wrong way. You are a practical person. You do not > value high at all the intellectuals who fill our columns with > grandiloquent and peremptory generalizations. That is good; for > neither do I. So I shall stick to the facts. Everybody has his own > facts, you will tell me. Those facts that I've been able to observe > during a short sojourn - a week in Serbia (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis, > Vramje), of which four days in Kosovo (from Pristina to Prej, from > Pritzren to Podujevo) - do not in my view seem to correspond to the > words that you use, from afar and in good faith. > > Do not think me partial. I had passed the previous week in Macedonia, > assisted at the arrival of the refugees and listened to their > testimonies. I was shaken, like many others. I decided at any cost to > go and see "from the other side" how such a crime was possible. > Mistrustful of journeys � la Intourist, i.e. of driving around > journalists on a bus, I demanded from the Serb authorities to have a > translator of my own, a vehicle of my own and the possibility to go > and talk to whomever I want. The contract was respected. > > Is the interpreter important? Yes. For I have established to my great > displeasure - but how can one help it? - that in Macedonia and Albania > one can rely imprudently on local translators, who, most of them being > sympathizers or fighters of the UCK, lend their views and their > contact network to the foreigner who has just arrived. The reports of > harassment are too numerous to doubt the existence of an undeniable > foundation in reality. > > However, certain testimonies that I had received turned out to be > exaggerated, even inexact, when verification was made on their places > of origin. Which, of course, does not change the disgraceful scandal > of this exodus. > > What do you keep repeating to us? "We are not waging war on the > Serbian people, but against a dictator, Milosevic, who, refusing any > negotiation, has planned, in cold blood, the genocide of the Kosovars. > We limit ourselves to destroying his apparatus of repression, a > destruction, which is already quite advanced. And if we continue the > strikes, notwithstanding the regrettable targeting errors and the > unintended collateral damage, it is because in Kosovo the Serb forces > continue their operations of ethnic cleansing." > > I have reasons to fear, Mr. President, that each word of the above is > a fraud. > > > > 1. "Not war on the people... " Don't you know that in the heart of New > Belgrade the children theatre Dusan-Radevic is just next to the > television and that the missile that destroyed the latter also hit the > former? The bombs have affected three hundred schools throughout the > country. The schoolchildren don't go to school anymore and are left to > themselves. In the countryside there are those who gather the yellow > explosive tubes, similar to toys (model CBU 87). These cluster bombs > or similar ones were scattered by the Soviets in Afghanistan. The > destruction of factories has left jobless one hundred thousand workers > with an income of 230 dinars, that is 91 francs per month. Nearly half > of the population is unemployed. If you believe to be thus turning it > against the r�gime, you are mistaken. Notwithstanding the fatigue and > the neediness, I have not observed a fissure in the sacred union. A > young woman in Pristina told me: "When four Chinese, representatives > of a great power, are killed, the world is indignant; but four hundred > Serbs - you don't count that. Curious, isn't it?" > > > > Of course, I have not witnessed the carnage, operated by the NATO > bombers on the buses, the refugee columns, the trains, the hospital in > Nis, and elsewhere. Nor the raids on the camps of Serb refugees > (Majino Maselje, April 21, four dead, twenty injured). I am talking > about the several hundred thousand Serbs whom the Croats deported out > of Krajna without microphones or cameras. > > But let me stick to the places and moments of my sojourn in Kosovo: > general Jertz, herald of NATO has declared: "We have not attacked any > convoy and we have never attacked civilians." That is a lie. I saw in > the hamlet of Lipljan, Thursday, May 6th, a private house pulverized > by a missile: three little girls and their two grand-parents massacred > with no military objective within a radius of 3 kilometers. On the > next day, I saw two other civilian cribs reduced to ashes two hours > before in the Gypsy quarter of Prizren; there were several victims > buried. > > > > 2. "A dictator, Milosevic..." My interlocutors from the opposition, > the only ones with whom I conversed, have reminded me of the harsh > realities. Autocrat, fraud, manipulator and populist, Mr. Milosevic > has nevertheless been elected three times: dictators have themselves > elected once, not twice. He respects the Yugoslav constitution. There > is no single ruling party. His is a minority in the Parliament. There > are no political prisoners, there are changing coalitions. He is > somewhat absent in the landscape of everyday life. One can openly > criticize him on the terraces of the caf�s and one does not abstain > from doing it, but nobody cares about it at all. There is no " > totalitarian " charisma in the spirits. The West seems to be a hundred > times more possessed by Mr. Milosevic than his compatriots are. > > > > To talk about Munich as regards him means to reverse the relation > between the strong and the feeble and to assume that an isolated and > poor country with a population of ten million persons, who doesn't > dream of anything beyond the borders of old Yugoslavia, can be > compared to Hitler's conquering and super-armed Germany. When one > veils one's face too much, one becomes blind. > > > > 3. " The genocide of the Kosovars... " A terrible chapter. I have met > only two accessible Western eyewitnesses. One of them, Alexander > Mitic, (of Serb origin, to be fair) is a correspondent of France-Press > in Pristina. The other one, Paul Watson, an English-speaking Canadian, > is the Central-European correspondent for Los Angeles Times. He has > covered Afghanistan, Somalia, Cambodia, the Gulf War and Rwanda: this > is not a novice. More of an anti-Serb, he has been following the civil > war in Kosovo for two years and knows every village and every road > there. The chap is a hero and therefore modest. When all the foreign > journalists were expulsed from Pristina in the first days of the > bombardment, he went into hiding in order to stay anonymously. Yet, he > never stopped going about and observing. > > > > His testimony is balanced and, when compared to that of others, > convincing. The worst harassments were committed during the first > three days (March 24th, 25th and 26th), under the deluge of bombs, > with arson, pillages and murders. Then several thousands of Albanians > were ordered to leave. He assured me that, since then, he has not > encountered any evidence of a crime against humanity. Undoubtedly, > these two scrupulous observers have not seen everything. And I have > seen still less. I can testify only to Albanian peasants returning to > Podujevo, Serb soldiers standing on guard before Albanian bakeries - > ten of these have been re-opened in Pristina; and people injured by > the bombardments, Albanians and Serbs lying side by side, in the > Pristina hospital (two hundred beds). > > So what has happened, then? In their opinion, the sudden superposition > of an international air war on a local civil war, the latter of > extreme cruelty. Let me remind you that in 1998 1700 Albanian > fighters, 180 policemen and 120 Serb soldiers have been killed. The > UCK has kidnapped 380 persons and released 103 of them, the rest being > dead or disappeared, sometimes after torture - among them 2 > journalists and 14 workmen. The UCK claimed to have 6000 clandestine > activists in Pristina and I was told that snipers came into action > when the first bombs began to fall. The Serbs, judging that they could > not fight on two fronts, have then decided to evacuate manu militari > > " NATO's fifth column ", its "ground troops ", i.e. the UCK, and, in > particular, in the villages where it was mixed with and had its base > in the civilian population. > > Localized but certain, these evacuations, called down there "� l' > Israelite", and which, as a veteran of Algeria, you certainly > remember, - one million civilians were displaced and confined by us in > barbed wire camps, in order to "filter the poison from the water", - > have left traces under the open sky, here and there: burned houses, > deserted villages. These military offensives had been causing > civilians to flee - most of them being from the families of fighters, > I was told - before the bombardments. They were, according to the > correspondent of France-Press, of a very limited number. "The people > found refuge in other nearby houses", he established. "No one was > starving to death, no one was killed on the roads, no one fled to > Albania and Macedonia. It was NATO's attack that pretty well started, > like a rolling snowball, the humanitarian catastrophe. Actually there > had been no need for camps to meet the refugees at the borders, till > then". During the first days, everybody agrees on that, repressions by > the so-called "uncontrolled " elements were unleashed, probably with > the complicity of the local police. > > Mr. Vuk Draskovic, vice-prime minister who has now resigned, and > others told me that, since then, they had arrested and accused in > Kosovo three hundred people, charged of harassment. Camouflage? Alibi? > Bad conscience? Maybe. Afterwards, the exodus continued, but at a much > smaller scale. By instructions from the UCK, which wants to regain > "its people", for fear of passing for "collaborators", out of fear of > the bombardments (which don't distinguish, at 6 000 meters, between > Serbs, Albanians and others), in order to rejoin the cousins who have > already left, because the cattle is dead, because America is going to > win, because this is the occasion to emigrate in Switzerland, in > Germany or elsewhere... These are explanations heard right there, at > the place. I am not telling you to have caution; I am just mentioning > what I heard. > > Maybe I've been listening to the "people on the other side" too much? > The opposite would be racism. Defining a priori a people - Jewish, > German or Serb - as collectively criminal is unworthy of a democrat. > After all, during the occupation, there were Albanian, Muslim and > Croatian SS divisions - but never a Serb one. Has this philosemite and > resistant people - more than ten nationalities co-exist in Serbia > itself - become Nazi with a fifty year delay? A number of Kosovar > refugees have told me they had escaped the repression thanks to Serb > neighbors or friends. > > > > 4. "The advanced destruction of the Serbian forces..." Alas; the > latter seem to feel fine. A young sergeant, serving in Kosovo, whom we > took for a hitchhike on the Nis-Belrade motorway, asked me for what > strategical reason NATO comes down on civilians so fiercely. "When we > go to the city, where there's no more electricity, we have to drink > warm Coke. It's a nuisance, but it's something you can live with." I > suppose the army units have their own electricity supply. > > > > In Kosovo, you have broken bridges that one can skirt by a ford, if > one does not go over, between the holes. You have damaged an airport > with no importance, destroyed empty barracks, enflamed military trucks > out of use, helicopter models and wooden pieces of artillery, placed > in the middle of the fields. Excellent for the video-images and the > chamber briefings, but afterwards? > > Remember that the Yugoslav defense, formed by Tito and his guerillas, > has nothing to do with a regular army: it is dispersed and > omnipresent, with its underground bunkers, prepared long ago in > advance for the conventional menaces - once, the Soviet one. They even > move the cannons with cattle to avoid being detected by heat. > > It's not a secret that in Kosovo there are 150 000 armed men, from > twenty to seventy years of age - there is no age limit for the > reservists - of which only 40 000 to 50 000 for general Pavkovic's > IIIrd army. The relay walkie-talkies seem to be in good condition and > it is the Yugoslavs themselves who mix up the telephone lines - the > UCK used portables to inform the US bombers. > > As regards the demoralization you hope for, do not believe anything > you hear about it. In Kosovo, they are waiting for our troops on firm > foot and, I fear, not without a certain degree of impatience. As a > reservist from Pristina, who was going to buy his bread, his AK on his > shoulder, told me: "Speed up with the ground intervention! In a real > war, there are at least dead on both sides." The wargame of the NATO > planners develops 5000 meters above reality. I implore you: do not > send our sensitive and intelligent Saint-Cyriens on a terrain they > know nothing of. Their cause may be just, but for them this will never > be a defensive war and even less, a sacred war, as it will be, with or > without merits, for the Serb volunteers of Kosovo and Metohia. > > > > 5. "They continue the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo..." I was indignant > at the number plates and the identity papers of the leaving refugees, > piled up at the checkpoints on the Albanian border. This was done out > of fear that the "terrorists" could infiltrate again by using them to > camouflage cars and papers, I was told. Much may have escaped my > modest observations, but the German defense minister lied on May 6, > when he said that "between 600 000 and 900 000 displaced persons have > been localized on the territory of Kosovo". On a territory of 10 000 > square kilometers, this couldn't have passed unnoticed for an > observer, moving in one day from east to west and from north to south. > In Pristina, where tens of thousands of Kosovars still live, one can > have a meal in Albanian pizzerias in the company of Albanians. > > > > Couldn't our ministers contact down there some cool-headed witnesses - > Greek doctors from M�decins sans fronti�res, ecclesiastics, priests? I > am thinking about Father Stephan, the Prizren prior, singularly well > balanced. For the civil war is not a religious war: the innumerable > mosques are intact - except two, according to what was reported to me. > > One can buy the foreign policy of a country - which is what the United > States are doing with the countries of the region - but not its dreams > and its memory. If you were to see the glances, full of hatred that > the Macedonian border guards and policemen cast on the transport > convoys that go up every night from Salonika to Skopje, and on their > arrogant escorts, oblivious of what surrounds them, you would readily > understand that it is easier to enter this "theatre" than to get out > of it. Will you, following the example of the Italian president, have > the courage or the intelligence to renounce these irreal postulates > and begin to search, with Ibrahim Rugova and, as his own words go, "a > political solution on realistic bases"? > > In that case, a certain number of realities will be imposed upon your > attention. First: no way out without a modus vivendi between Serbs and > Albanians, as Mr. Rugova demands for it, because there are not one but > two, and even several communities in Kosovo. Without entering the > battle of numbers, due to the absence of trustworthy statistics, I > believe to have understood that there are a million and more > Albanians, two hundred fifty thousand Serbs and two hundred fifty > thousands persons, belonging to other ethnic minorities - islamized > Serbs, Turks, gorans or mountaineers, romanis, " Egyptians " or > Albanian-speaking Gypsies - who fear the domination of a Greater > Albania and have taken the side of the Serbs. Second: no way out > without preventing the rebirth of a fierce interior war, an episode of > a century-old cycle, the Act 1 without which today's Act 2 is > incomprehensible, but which on its own came after an exterior > oppression. > > Present day politicians always follow some analogy with the past. On > top of that, they always find the worst ones possible. You have chosen > the Hitlerite analogy, with the Kosovars as persecuted Jews. Allow me > to suggest another one: Algeria. Mr. Milosevic is certainly not de > Gaulle. However, the civilian authorities have to deal with a military > who are fed up with losing and wants to put an end to it. Moreover, > this regular army itself coexists with local partisans who could one > day very well come to resemble OAS. > > And what if the problem is not in Belgrade, but in the streets, the > caf�s, the groceries of Kosovo? These people there and it is a fact, > do not look reassuring at all. Once or twice, they seriously clutched > at me. And, speaking frankly, I must say it was Serb officers who > arrived to my rescue each time and saved my suit. > > You remember de Gaulle's definition of NATO: "An organization, imposed > upon the Atlantic Alliance, which amounts to nothing else that the > military and political subordination of West Europe to the United > States of America". The day will come when you will explain to us what > made you change this definition. In the meantime, I must admit I felt > a little ashamed when, in Belgrade, having been asked why his > president readily receives an American and not a Frenchman, a Serbian > member of the democratic opposition answered: "At any rate, it's > better to talk to the master rather than to his servants." > > > > > > > > R�gis Debray > Le Monde, May 13, 1999 > "As soon as sufficient forces are available and the weather allows, > the ground installations of the Yugoslav Air Force and the City of > Belgrade will be destroyed from the air by continual day and night > bombardment. When that is completed we will subdue Yugoslavia." > > --Adolf Hitler A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 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