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Are any professional groups representing TV or Radio journalists,
technicians etc. saying anything about the bombing of Serb TV
and radio stations, particularly the brutal attack in downtown
Belgrade? Serb short wave reported a statement of solidarity from
Italian journalists
who condemned the raid. Western journalists in Belgrade expressed
sympathy for the families.
According to the Serb short wave the CNN reporters report aired
briefly but then was not repeated. There was video of the
aftermath I gather. You would think that there would be outrage
among journalists and reporters at what has happened even though
their sympathies might be with NATO.
.
NATO has now specifically targeted a Belgrade power plant.
With that they did not even have a fig leaf to cover their
actions. They claim that they are bringing the war home to the
populace and encouraging
them to get rid of Milosevic. Are NATO leaders losing it or is it
me? Why not really bring it home to the
populace by carpet bombing? Are these trial balloons to see what
if any will be the public reaction in NATO countries? We go from
military installations and police stations, to bridges, to
railroads, to civilian airports, a cigarette factory, a car
factory protected by workers, a politician's residence, to TV
stations, and to heating plants. What is next? Why not aim at
schools where they no doubt teach Serb propaganda, universities,
etc. etc.
I post a couple of recent commentaries by Rebick. They are
not that bright but even a dim light
seems impressive in the overpowering gloom of most media
reporting.
Cheers, Ken Hanly
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<B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#003399">Judy Rebick: The Bombing Must Stop</FONT></B><P>
It's beginning to feel like 1965 when the U.S. first intervened in Vietnam. Most
people supported the Vietnam war in 1965. The American government assured its
citizens that it would be a brief intervention to stay the hand of Communism in the
region.
<p>
With eerie echoes of those days, I am hearing the argument that the
NATO bombing may have been a mistake but now that we are in there we
cannot possibly leave until Milosevic backs down. If NATO ends the
bombing now, the argument goes, Milosevic will be free to continue his
campaign of terror without fear of consequence. For those of us who
remember, such arguments are a chilling reminder of the step by step
escalation of the war in Vietnam. Surely Vietnam taught us that
compounding a mistake by digging yourself in further makes absolutely no
sense. If the initial bombing was ill conceived than escalating it
makes absolutely no sense.
<p>
I got an e-mail early this week that broke my heart. The letter was
from 17 Belgrade non-governmental organizations pleading with their
counterparts in the Europe and North America to support their demand to
stop the bombing.
<p>
These are groups like the Center for Democracy and Free elections, the
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia and Women in Black who for
years have courageously opposed the savage, repressive policies of
Slobodan Milosevic. <i> "Our efforts to develop democracy and a civic society in
Yugoslavia...have taken place under constant pressure by the Serbian
regime. We, the representatives of civil groups and organizations, have
courageously and consistently fought against every war-mongering and
nationalistic policy and for the respect of human rights and
particularly against the repression of the Kosovo Albanians. The NATO
intervention has destroyed everything that has been achieved so far."</i>
<p>
Personal e-mails that I have received from feminists in Belgrade are saying
the same thing. They want the bombing stopped and for Europe and Russia to take
responsibility for finding a peaceful solution to the crisis. The want
an end to ethnic cleansing and a repatriation of the refugees. And they
want the media in both Serbia and abroad to "stop fanning the flames of
ethnic hatred, hysteria and glorification of force as the only
reasonable way out of the crisis."
<p>
These are the people in the region who have worked across ethnic
barriers and for a multi- ethnic democracy and they are demanding an end
to the NATO bombing. These democrats have never received the support
of the West against Milosevic. The NATO bombing has in fact destroyed
the best chance for a peaceful and democratic society in the Serbia.
<p>
Over the winter months this democratic opposition brought hundreds
of thousands of people into the streets and forced Milosevic to revoke a
number of undemocratic and illegal measures. If NATO had really been
interested in promoting human rights in Yugoslavia, they would have
backed this coalition of women's, peace and democratic groups. They did
not.
<p>
At one time in our history, Canada might have been working with
Russia and the UN to broker a peaceful solution. People in the region
who have suffered years of inter-ethnic warfare are the best placed to
develop such a solution. Canada should be supporting them. Instead our
leaders are simply tagging behind the U.S. and Britain in what seems to
be the new form of Western imperialism.
<p>
<HR><P>
Judy Rebick is host of <A HREF="http://www.newsworld.cbc.ca/thehip">Straight from the
Hip</A> - you can e mail her at <A
HREF="mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]">[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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<B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#003399">Judy Rebick: Kosovo - The Internet War</FONT></B><P>
Just like the Gulf War made CNN an indispensable information source, so
the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia has shown what an effective source of
news and views the Internet can be. The old adage that the first
casualty of war is truth may be dumped in the dustbin of history by
electronic communications through the Internet.<P>
From the moment of the first bombings, I started to get e-mails with
articles providing an alternative to the mainstream media. Anyone can
log on to numerous alternative web sites, depending on your preferences
and find out views that your mainstream news outlets won't print.
After the first day of bombing I logged into the Z Magazine's wonderful
web site to get three different progressive views of what was going on
in Kosovo. Mainstream sites like CBC Online or BBC Online provide a
depth of coverage and background that has never been so available.<P>
Like most people I have followed the bloody career of Slobodan
Milosevic with horror. Milosevic is a brutal, power-mad nationalist who
has committed terrible war crimes, especially in Bosnia and deserves to
be tried for them by a world court. If something could be done to stop
further atrocities in Kosovo, I would support it. But is that what this
bombing is really about?<P>
From all reports, and it is difficult to get accurate information
now that foreign journalists have been expelled, Serbian army savagery
against the ethnic Albanians has gotten much worse since the bombing
began. Unquestionably the flow of refugees has massively increased. The
NATO bombing has produced or accelerated a human disaster of historic
proportions. Rather than isolating Milosevic, the NATO attack has
united Serbians around the world behind his leadership. Even those who
originally fled his regime are now demonstrating at U.S. embassies
around the world.<P>
The argument is that we had to do something. We could not just
stand by. In a brilliant analysis distributed through the Internet,
famed U.S. anti-war activist and scholar Noam Chomsky says, "One choice,
always, is to follow the Hippocratic principle: ‘First, do no harm' If
you can think of no way to adhere to that elementary principle, then do
nothing...Diplomacy and negotiations are never at an end." Chomsky also
points out that the U.S. supports regimes even more brutal than
Milosevic's when it suits their purposes. In recent history, the Turks
have been just as savage to the Kurds, Indonesia's Suharto to the East
Timorese, and the Chinese government to the Tibetans.<P>
Another advantage of the Internet is easy access to newspaper
archives. A 1987 report in the New York Times warned about civil war in
the Kosovo area of Yugoslavia. Here is reporter David Binder's analysis
of the situation a little more than ten years ago: "Ethnic Albanians in
the government have manipulated public funds and regulations to take
over land belonging to the Serbs...Slavic Orthodox churches have been
attacked...Slavic boys have been knifed and some ethnic Albanians have
been told by their elders to rape Serbian girls...The goal of the
radical nationalists among them, one said in an interview, is an "ethnic
Albania that includes western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, part of
Southern Serbia, Kosovo and Albania itself...As Slavs flee the
protracted violence, Kosovo is becoming what ethnic Albanian nationals
have been demanding for years, an ethnically pure Albanian region, a
Republic of Kosovo in all but name."<P>
I quote this at length not to minimize the crimes of Milosevic but
to illustrate that we are only getting one side of the story.
Nevertheless, I notice a much wider diversity of views about this war
in the mainstream media than during the Gulf War. For this, in part, we
can thank our newest and so far most democratic form of international
telecommunications, the Internet.<P>
<HR><P>
Judy Rebick is host of <A HREF="http://www.newsworld.cbc.ca/thehip">Straight from the
Hip</A> - you can e mail her at <A
HREF="mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]">[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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