May
1999
Editorial:
Down with Bombs: A Fine Night for a Bombing
By Catherine Clyne |
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The United Press International blurb was only
a few lines long. It stated that the “U.S. military is providing 500,000
packaged vegetarian meals for ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo.” I,
of course, was struck by a particular descriptive detail—vegetarian—and
numerous and quite ironic questions sprang to mind. Some people I have
talked to have suggested that U.S. standard rations simply happen to be
vegetarian, perhaps because they won’t violate religious dietary
practices, may be cheaper to produce, or will spoil less easily. Such
reasoning aside, it’s no small irony that hungry, terrified and homeless
Kosovar refugees are receiving meals that some would consider a symbol
of a compassionate lifestyle, rations perhaps stamped “a gift from
the people of the United States.”
It is undeniable that the deluge of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanian
refugees fleeing Kosovo is a direct result of the NATO bombing campaign.
There is no doubt that Serbian forces were building up in Kosovo prior
to March 24th, most likely poised for no good. However, “Operation
Allied Force,” as it is officially called, has observably exacerbated
a situation which NATO’s rhetoric claimed it was trying to prevent:
“ethnic cleansing.” The continuous showering of Yugoslavia with
bombs is not only illegal (attacking a sovereign nation without declaring
war), it has failed to prevent the rape and slaughter of Albanian Kosovars.
Instead, it has reinforced President Slobodan Milosevic’s power and
allowed his regime to carry out its agenda unfettered by any signed peace
agreement. In addition, the NATO campaign has made most pro-democracy
Serbs feel betrayed by the West, the very democracies they struggled to
emulate. Just as U.S. bombing of Iraq led Iraqis to turn to their leader,
the undeclared war of NATO against Yugoslavia has made Serbs who have
not supported Milosevic in the past turn to him as their country is attacked
by the West. Now that Milosevic and President Bill Clinton are portrayed
as “Hitler” by either side’s respective rhetoric, there
is little hope either side will come to the table for peace talks in
the
near future.
Veran Matic, editor-in-chief of Belgrade’s banned Radio B92 and a
leading peace activist asks, “Just how far are NATO members prepared
to go? What comes after the ‘military’ targets? What happens
if the war spreads?” “[These] questions crowded my mind as I
sat in a Belgrade prison on the first day of the NATO attack on my country,”
he continues, “I asked myself what the West’s aim was for ‘the
morning after’. The image of NATO taking its finger off the trigger
kept coming to mind.”
“They might as well drop an atomic bomb and just finish us off,”
my Serbian friend commented recently over the phone from Belgrade. We’ve
been friends since high school and I call her regularly these days to
see how she and her family are doing. She watches the Serbian and British
newscasts, both to be taken with a grain of salt. Reporters cheerily forecast
clear spring weather in Yugoslavia—“a fine night for heavy bombing,”
my friend quips sarcastically. “It’s spring and everything is
green, but it seems like a bad dream,” she says. “You can feel
the tension, nobody seems happy, but on the surface everything seems normal.
We live during the day and then go home at night to wait for the sirens
and the bombs.” “Down With Bombs,” reads graffiti on a
Belgrade city wall, both a cry of protest against the continuous bombing
and an observation that they just keep falling. Before bombing, my friend
tells me, NATO calls the buildings so that people can evacuate. How thoughtful
of them. How gentlemanly.
“Do your parents go to a bomb shelter at night?” I ask. No,
she answers, they prefer to stay at home and take care of the dogs. A
reporter on National Public Radio underscored the catastrophe in Kosovo
as he observed the systematically burned-out buildings and numerous companion
animals aimlessly wandering amidst the rubble: silent casualties of war
left behind as Albanian Kosovars were forced to flee for their lives.
“Collateral damage,” Clinton comments, “is tragic, regrettable
and also inevitable.” So far this noble operation has made only a
dent in the Serbian military but has succeeded in fueling its determination.
The bombings have killed numerous civilians—Albanians and Serbs—in
spite of the pre-explosion courtesy calls. Meanwhile, waves of refugees
crash upon the borders of neighboring countries and the world struggles
to mobilize help.
More and more we hear the rhetoric of “the credibility of NATO”
being at stake in this operation. This is a classic showdown and it is
doubtful that Clinton and NATO will develop the foresight, compassion
and common sense to take their finger off the trigger and choose a non-violent
solution. At the time of writing, April 20th, it is rumored that NATO
will utilize the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) as its “unofficial”
ground offensive. NATO originally avoided arming and cooperating with
the KLA because it uses guerrilla tactics. Recent reports are that the
KLA are forcibly recruiting any able-bodied men for their cause. While
the West deliberates over the question of ground troops, the Serbian military
is planting land mines along the borders, digging in their heels in preparation
for a ground war. As the crisis escalates, it is clear that NATO has no
plan for the future. In the meantime, they‘ll continue bombing, killing
more and more civilians and causing more collateral damage. “Down
with Bombs,” indeed.
