And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: As a rule we at ZO have not posted articles about the US-NATO war in Yugoslavia because of the sheer volume of information about Chiapas that passes through our stations every day. This excellent and informative article deserves to be posted because of its insight into the situation in Kosovo and Yugoslavia in general. Pat This message is forwarded to you as a service of Zapatistas Online. Comments and volunteers are welcome. Write [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 20:04:14 -0700 Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: "Aktunowihio" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Multiple recipients of list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: a message from Yugoslavia hau! I live in Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia. As you probably know, for the last two weeks my country is in a state of war with NATO. Normally, I would have discussed the situation in Chiapas, which was my intention when I subscribed to the CHiapas-L. Unfortunately, events force me to write about the situation in my own yard. I see that the Kosovo crisis has reached even Chiapas-L. A lot has been said about Kosovo in mainstream media; since the start of the strikes I saw words like "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" used many times. I disaproove the over-use of the word "genocide". "Genocide" is not something you can put in every paragraph of your report. Simply because the over-use of the word would belitlle its weight. According to the mainstream media, a genocide is taking place in Kosovo; genocidal practices of the Yugoslav regime towards the Kosovo Albanian population had "justified" this war; First,in these mainstream reports, the people, the Serbs, are confused with the regime in Belgrade. In this way, a whole nation is labeled with the "war criminal" label; the Serbs are sterotyped as a nation of cruel bloodthirsty murderors, and such representation of nation allegedly has background in history, where the fact that history of the region is filled with wars and conflicts is over-emphasized. Mr. Blair, PM of Great Britain and mr.Clinton, president of the U.S."A". did stated that "these air strikes are not against the people, the ordinary people of Serbia, but against the regime, etc." These are words. What are the facts? Facts are, its the people who die under bombs; its the people who run for shelter when they hear air raid sirenes; its the people who suffer from this war. The regime is untouched by it. Not only untouched, regime managed to strenghten its position. Obviously, people's minds are not on the omnipresent poverty (66% of the people of Yugoslavia are poor) but rather on the very real threat of death. (Just yesterday, 10 people died and 30 were injured in Aleksinac, 11 died in Kurshumliya, 2 in Smederevo, 2 in Panchevo...) At a first glance, situation in Kosovo may appear simmilar to Chiapas. Let aside the fact that indetifying the so-called Latin America with Europe is absolutely eurocentric and racist. Albanian people are not indigenous to Kosovo. Originally, Albanians were indigenous only to what is now central Albania. Over time, they moved to southern, originally Greek parts and northern, originally Slav (including Serb) parts. In WWII Kosovo was governed from fascist-italian controlled Greater Albania. Father of my grandfather was forced to leave or face execution; he then fled to north of Serbia, hoping that he ll return to his home one day. But the new communist government forbid the return of Serbs, in a fear of from a possible conflict. This is how my family settled in Belgrade. However, past history must not be used as a pretext for current genocidal policies in Kosovo. Its not the people, the Serbs, who want to revenge. Its the regime that is responsible for current opression, and regime does it out of need for war, a war that would enable the dictator to remain in power for some more. Further, KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) guerilla fighters differ from EZLN in so many ways. KLA doesn't push for a nation-wide action; (if KLA pushed for a democracy in whole of Yugoslavia, I would be among the first to support it, by all means).Instead of a nation-wide action KLA is focused on doing in Kosovo what the regime does, just on a lesser scale. Without the democracy in Yugoslavia, a viable solution for Kosovo is imposible. This is something KLA doesn't realize. Regarding the reports on opression in Kosovo, my instincts tell me that the opression of the Kosovo Albanians is very real. I believe to the refugees when they speak of the police brutality; But the reporters manipulation of facts is something I refuse to accept as truth. "Serbs make rape a weapon of war" - The Times/UK "...their houses were burned by the Serbs living next door..." BBC World Report "...Only arming Kosovo's Albanians will prevent another genocide" (this one I found in Chiapas-L archives, The Guardian 3/31/99) Aside from labeling the whole nation with the "war criminal" label, titles like above mentioned serve to justify any so-called collateral damage. They clearly imply "Serbs should suffer, look at what they do to Albanians". I have spoken before abour how people suffer from the strikes; aside from current bombardment, people of inner Serbia suffer from the opressive dictatorship of Mr. Milosevic, something that mainstream media fail to mention. 300 000 protestors felt the opression on their skin, when police used water cannons and tear gas, and later sticks and small fire arms to mercilessly crush the protests of winter '96/'97. My friend is almost blind on one eye after the beatings. An excerpt from my letter to editors of Wotanging Ikche electronic newsletter follows: "...There is one picture from these protests I will never forget Police column stands in front of the protesting crowd, between the protestors and the police is a 10 year old girl, looking for its parents. Suddenly, police column pushes forward and starts to beat with sticks everything that lies in its path; there is no end to the police cruelty - small girl starts to bleed and to cry while several policemen mericlesslly beat her with sticks..." In past two years situation worsened. The mask of the freedom of media has fallen, independent media may now be prosecuted for every report that isnt in line with the official version. Universities have been put under state control, and most proffesors that supported the student protests of 96/97 have been fired, although some were returned to work later. Country sank deeper into economic crisis; clearly, funding of the police force of some 120 000 policemen is a great burden for 10 million Yugoslav citizen. Police acts as a right arm of the regime, as the regime's most confident instrument of opression. Police has many atributes of the army, while army was deliberately weakened to make the danger of an army coup less possible. Two-thirds of total population of Yugoslavia are poor; one-tenth of the population lives in a state of extreme poverty; less than 1% of the population is extremely rich; True, no opponent of the regime has been shoot, yet; maybe, the adequate word for the yugoslav system is "democrature", system that resembles to a democracy from outside, while its true nature is that of a dictatorship, with the power concetrated within the hands of a one person - the dictator; What is my point? What is to be done? My point is opression in Kosovo is just one aspect of the opression in Yugoslavia. In the core of problem lies the kleptocratic regime, which keeps creating wars and conflicts in order to remain in power; I repeat, only when Yugoslavia becomes a democracy, only then a viable solution to the Kosovo crisis or any other future crisis may be found. I accuse the leaders of NATO of supporting the regime; regime here knows that NATO needs a troublemaking government to justify the very existence of NATO, after the Cold War. This is why NATO plays the dictator's favorite game of war. This creates the illusion that NATO is "punishing the regime", while instead of punishing the regime NATO is punishing the people in Yugoslavia, not just Serbs, but also Albanians, Montenegrins, Moslems and every other of the two dozen different peoples living in Yugoslavia. I am for an independent inquiry into war crimes comitted in Kosovo; such an inquiry should brought to justice all war criminals, regardless of ethnicity. Not only that the persons that did the crimes should be brought to justice but also the government officials of the regime which allowed such dark things to happen in its country. Further, regarding the solution to crisis, I would support the independence for Kosovo if it was the right solution. But it isn't. Recipe of independence already failed when applied to the civil war in former, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. "International community" supported the independence that nationalistic governments in Croatia and Bosnia demanded, which only resulted in adding fuel to problem. The break-up of a former Yugoslavia was a great tragedy, that resulted in 250 000 dead and more than 2 500 000 refugees. The regime which is still in power here caused this tragedy. Break-up of what remains of Yugoslavia would be even greater tragedy, there are already at least 2000 dead and more than 600 000 refugees, not counting the people who fled Serbia since the start of bombardment. Regime which caused the suffering of people must be punished. It must be punished by the very people that feel the opression - by the people living in Yugoslavia, Albanians and Serbs, and every other nation living here. These were my remarks. I thank you for patience to read my letter, and I apoligize if you encountered grammar or spelling errors in it (since english is not my first language). I would appreciate very much your thoughts on this matter. with the hopes for a lasting peace in a near future, Aktunowihio _______________________________________________________ Get your free, private email at http://mail.excite.com/ -- To unsubscribe from this list send a message containing the words unsubscribe chiapas95 to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Previous messages are available from http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html or gopher://eco.utexas.edu. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
