Syndicate: ZAGINFLATCH #40

[florian schneider <fls@ibu.de>]

ZAGINFLATCH #40,
11th June 1999.
a newsletter published by Zagreb Anarchist Movement

ZAP / ARK GAJEVA 55
10 000 ZAGREB
CROATIA

zap_zg@geocities.com
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/3707/


***************************************

The situation in Belgrade is stabilising. We now constantly have
electricity and water and things are starting to look brighter. The
strawberry and cherry prices have dropped from 30 Din to 15 Din in 3
days so now we can afford something besides onions and green salad.

People are looking hopefully at the peace talks. Even the kids from the
neighborhood have realised that war isn't much fun.

No one will ever know how many albanians were killed by YU army, police
and paramilitary units in Kosovo and Metohija. I heard many bloody
stories and braggings about burned and bombed down villages. The usual
recipy is to bomb the village to the ground and then blame it on NATO. I
heard stories from Serbs who left Pristina and came to Belgrade that
when the troops surrounded the city, they surrounded albanian houses one
by one and entered them. They heard shots and cries from inside and they
didn't see any albanians come out alive, but they mostly didn't stick
around such places long enough to be sure.

The NATO and the Yu army are covering up most of each others losses.
NATO have hit several barracks in the first days of the bombing while
the troops were still in them. No one published a thing. They all know
that. One of those barracks was in Belgrade. The Yu high command is
trying to reduce official NATO air losses to a minimum, and it publishes
info only on those planes that have been seen to crash. I saw a site of
some russian claiming that Yu airforce made an air-raid on Tuzla airport
in Bosnia in broad daylight, destroying NATO aircraft on the ground.

The yugo army is constantly entering albanian territory, trying to push
the KLA/NATO forces and the refugees deeper into Albania.

About the peace concerts at Belgrade's Republic square and at Branko's
bridge, the musical bands were ORDERED to attend those or else the music
houses, which are all controlled by milosevic's gang would erase all
their original records and CD's. Also, I saw an incredible number of
skinheads attending them, some of which wanted to beat me because I was
wearing an antiwar t-shirt, but their leader stopped them.

Same goes for the "Spontaneous gatherings of citizens" on the bridges.
Most of those people come there because they were told they would be
sacked from their jobs if they didn't. The rest come because they want
to show themselves as loyal slaves to the master.

 ***************************************

 Communiqué on the Kosov@ war from the Executive Committee of the War
Resisters' International

The Executive Committee of the War Resisters' International meeting in
London, 22-24 May 1999 discussed the war in Kosovo@ and the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia.  Those of us from NATO countries discussed the
situation in our own countries - for instance of the problems of
anti-war groups in dealing with peace organisations who support the NATO
bombings, or of so-called anti-war groups who repeat Serbian propaganda
and refuse to condemn the Serbian ethnic cleansing.  Our view is that
the primary author of this situation is Slobodan Milosevic.

How this war will end remains unclear.  Indeed, we recognised the danger
that though this is the latest of a series of wars, the danger is that
it will not be the last of that series: there is a strong risk of war in
Albania, Macedonia or Montenegro.

Call to war resistance The WRI Executive is preparing an appeal for
desertion to be signed by prominent people, especially from the NATO
countries and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Refugees In addition to the existing activities of WRI groups opposing
both the Serbian ethnic cleansing and the NATO bombings, we noted the
particular needs for support of refugees, including draft resisters  and
deserters.

Refugees are more than victims: they are people whose rights and whose
capacity to shape their own future should be respected.  We deplore the
policy of certain "host" governments restricting access to the refugees
or the refugees' association with support groups or compatriates in that
country.

Draft resisters and deserters should be recognised as people
interrupting the chain of violence, and granted asylum or offered
support in training themselves to build peace on their return to their
home country.   The WRI office will continue to provide information on
the legal situation of deserters seeking asylum, and asks affiliates to
send the office information relevant to this issue.  We re-affirm our
solidarity with groups sheltering deserters, legally or illegally.

We considered reports of exploratory visits to Macedonia, hearing both
of the bad conditions in the refugee camps and the strain on the fabric
of Macedonian society.   In view of the willingness of NATO countries to
spend so much on bombings, it is a scandal that they will not contribute
more to ensure better conditions for displaced people or to support the
host communities in Macedonia and Albania.  Local groups have a vital
role to play in work with refugees, and therefore we would encourage
prospective international volunteers to support and join multi-ethnic
projects with a local basis, such as those carried out in cooperation by
Macedonian and Albanian women (Macedonian- and Kosov@-Albanian) in
Macedonia.

Rebuilding civil society Even when people have been forcibly expelled
from their homes, it is still possible to do some work to begin the
rebuilding of  civil society. Especially in Macedonia, certain Kosov@
Albanian civil society groups have begun to re-form - despite
difficulties imposed by the situation, including problems of
registration with the Macedonian authorities.   Serbian civil society
has also suffered repercussions from the war, censorship, intimidation,
and even assassination by death squad.

We considered a preliminary report from a Balkan Peace Team exploratory
visit to Budapest and Macedonia, and hope that this project can resume
its work in support of civil society.

Dialogue We recognised that fewer Kosov@ Albanians than ever are
prepared for dialogue with Serbs, noting a few exceptional individuals
including members of the Nansen group.  This is not likely to change
quickly until more Serbs recognise the culpability of Serbia for what
has occurred.  At the same time, grass roots initiatives for dialogue
will be essential if there is to be any prospect for establishing
peaceful coexistence between Serbs and Albanians in Kosov@.   We noted
that dialogue within the context of South-Eastern Europe as a whole
might be more promising than simply solely Serbian-Albanian.

War crimes WRI regards war itself as a crime against humanity.  There is
nevertheless a specific need to investigate acts or policies which
violate even the codes of war, beginning by identifying the
responsibility of Slobodan Milosevic and those acting in collusion with
him.  Delegitimisation of Milosevic is an essential task for civil
society groups and international institutions, and we will continue to
publicise the work of citizens and groups inside Serbia who are
withdrawing from the regime.

NATO's bombing is in the tradition of other campaigns designed to break
the will of a regime by bombing the civilian population.  In pursuing
the war option, NATO has by-passed other international institutions -
the UN, the OSCE, and the International War Crimes Tribunal in the
Hague.  As the bombing campaign escalates, the selection of targets
becomes less and less discriminating - now spreading to include the
entire economic infrastructure. Such policies confirm NATO's unfitness
to pose as the upholder of international law and guardian of security
and human rights.

Informing and education WRI will continue to play an active role in
spreading material from our affiliates in the region, such as Women in
Black, and in trying to provide continuing analysis of how the situation
is developing and what peace activists outside can contribute to peace.

In addition to material included in the May-August Peace News, we
recommend more recent documents available such as the report on the
Balkan Peace Team exploratory visit to Hungary and Macedonia, and a
25-page document on Kosovo: After the War, written by Howard Clark for
the Kosovo Working Group of the Committee on Conflict Transformation
Support.   These are about to be posted on the WRI web page:
http://www.gn.apc.org/warresisters

24 May 1999

 ***************************************

from: Sicko

Let me tell you something - fuck you all, people. In the beginning (one
month ago, when I came home) all this shit was interesting. But it is
not any more. I have red your shit from Croatia, and all shit from here,
from Serbia and all of it became very, very pitiful. I will try to
recall things that nerved me the most, but be sure that I will leave out
a lot, because there is so much of it. First to that Markic from green -
full! If you think that by arming Albanians in Kosova you would solve
something you are mistaking. First I want to inform you, from the first
hand, that they are more than well armed for this shit they are doing.
While Yugoslav army has some bad snipers, they have Canadian and
Australian that cost even ten thousand DEM. They have enough guns, and
ammunition, too. They are not saving tromblons either. Somewhere they
have minobacaee. it is not enough. Well, they have phantoms, mirage,
harriers, "invisible", a-10, b-2, b-52, apaches (by the way, they fly
down even if claimed differently)... They have aviation, and these
"legal" ones don't have. That is not enough either. O.K. while Yu army
has old and incorrect RUPs or doesn't have them at all, they have
Motorola, satellite telephones, mobile phones that don't work right now
because line is disconnected. What more would you give them. Were you
for giving that all to Serbs in Republic of Serb Krajina while that was
going on at your place? Do you think that it would have finished better
than it did? One can say, it depends for whom, but we all know that it
ended the worse it can? Than, it is turn for Vesna and those like her.
Fuck you with those historical facts. The fact is that we were fucked,
and we still are as peoples, but is the solution to lie on ground and
become what state wants us to become? Whit stories like that we are just
withdrawing from what we tried to create all this last years. Before I
continue with this I have to turn to that metal from Bosnia - idiot,
fuck you with this war on your area. You, from Bosnia, think that only
you were fucked. No, in this world, there is no other place where people
are dying. Mass of Croat origin people didn't die, mass of Serb origin
people didn't die, mass of Muslim origin out of Bosnia didn't die, just
you died, and just at your place children were  massacred. I know well
what was going on at your place, but what makes you think that here is
better. Because people here deserve it because they didn't fight against
what was going on there. What have you deserve, when you do nothing now?
Just to remind you, while that was going on at your place, here were
protests of all kinds of stupidity. There is no, you deserve "that and
that". Why did I and my friends deserve to need a pile of visas,
guarantee letters (even if that is possible), and in the same time
people from Croatia or other parts of world don't. Why, if we succeed to
go over border they have to search us trough in order to see if we carry
weapons. Why do our sport representation have to play out of the
country. To continue where I was a while ago. Fuck you with stories like
that. I was in the war, I was in the battle and as a nurse I have seen a
lot of human suffering and no one can talk to me about it. I will tell
you just that always till now, and in this war and even in some future
war, suffering was on some worker or farmer - shortly on the poor. There
is not a war that is for national interests and should be supported. Let
the Croats lead that war, let the Albanians lead that war, let the Serbs
lead that war... that all is a shit because in the end the winner is
high class. So, stop doing what you are doing now. It is better to try
to find ways of helping each other. Those kinds of ideas are welcomed.
Concretely, does anyone know how I can get out of here?

reply to this message:

I got the impression that you're on the side of the army which has sent
you to the war. Should this army also be well armed (so it can win the
war)? That army doesn't represent the people (or at least not the people
i know), it doesn't represent the workers nor the peasant you mention.
It represents something what doesn't exist for a long time now. A
virtual state (with it's friggin soverinity and teritorial integrity)
with our dear leader, papa, pater, and his horrible-real oligarchy.

Marija

***************************************

Bombs kill 100 prisoners.

BELGRADE - Around 100 prisoners and employees of the jail Istok were
killed, while 200 were wounded in the NATO attacks. This was reported on
Monday 24th May. by the "Pokrajinski sekretarijat za organizaciju uprave
i propise Kosova." (local secretariat for organization of managment and
regulations, in Kosovo). It is feared that there were even more
casualties. As the report



says, among victims there is also a certain number of employees,
including the warden's deputy. A certain number of prisoners has taken
advantage of the situation and intense bombing to escape from the prison
in Istok. Evacuation of other prisoners is in progress, but it's being
blocked by NATO threats. NATO Aviation has twice bombed the jail in
Istok.The jail was bombed again on the 23rd May, when more that 20
missiles were launched. There are around 1000 prisoners in Istok prison.

 ***************************************

Fuck it, nobody forced us to get born on this fucking Balcan. We're all
the same, and uderstand each others no matter the minor language
differences. This beautiful Balcan has a nasty caratheristic that it's
in the middle of the storm. It's in everyones eye, and we, fulls, can't
politically grow. Especially us (?) Serbs. Instead of being mature and
responsible, we have placed murderers and lunatics in power. But no
matter how much tragedy we brought to others, i think that everything
will break on our backs. I am afraid that it will be impossible to live
as a himan in Serbia. Almost everybody who knows something and is worth
something has gone. The university gave what it had, after this the
darkness will follow. That is the reason why people from here scream for
HELP! We are no chetniks (at least people on this mailing list). How can
i be a chetnik and a nationalist when my great granma was murdered by
them when they tried to make her admit where is her daughter - so they
could slaughter her. Honestly, i don't give a fuck for the state. Some
anarchist i'd be if i'd be in favour of the state. But why would good
and fair people, at the same time indoctrinated and narrow minded, pay
for other people's mistakes? that would be the same as punishing an
imature child with a death penalty for it's parrents' sins.

Viktor

***************************************

31.05.1999.

BEOGRAD - Serbia, faced with the NATO aggression and the devastated
industrial works, is confronted with a mass exodus of the urban
population into the rural regions, says Misa Brkic, writing for FoNet.
He is the assistant editor-in-chief of the Belgrade weekly "Vreme". Is
it possible, provoked by the NATO aggression and the huge devastation of
the industry, for a process to start in Serbia which is opposite to the
one that has lasted in this country for almost 50 years? Will the
industrial worker from the urban midst pack his personal things together
under the pressure of existential compulsion and head for the destroyed
home region, to the ZAPARLOZENA meadow, while singing " a Serb gladly
becomes a peasant" ? Observed from the current situation, the until
recently Serbian industrial towns are not offering a promising life
perspective. There is no work in the destroyed factories, the city
transport does not work, there is less and less electricity and water,
there isn't even enough money to pay the bills...and all this seems
unbearable for the majority of the quite recent workers. Observed from
this aspect, Serbia is threatened by a process that happened in Cambodia
a few decades ago - the mass exodus of the urban population to the rural
regions. Unlike in Cambodia, where the process was provoked by the
political decision of the "Red Cumbers" of Pol Pot, in Serbia this
decision will be extort by the NATO aggression and existential
necessity. But neither in Serbia the return to the village has not
passed without a political decision. The Government of Serbia has
reacted in the only possible and realistic way through their
economic-social program - it has offered the industrial workers (whose
factories were destroyed) financial help to get back to their deserted
village homesteads. The government analysts were familiar with the
information that half of the employees in the Serbian factories were the
so called "polutani" - neither workers nor peasants, so they counted on
the fact that it would not be difficult for these people to adapt in
agriculture. For now, it seems, that the response to the governments
"here you are" is very little, regardless of the alluring credit offers.
To the recent industrial worker it is clear that the village and
agriculture were never the governments pet.. If it was, the country
would live much better than the city and everyone would be grabbing for
working places in agriculture. However, the government has never allowed
the Serbian peasant to become a manufacturer for a big market, where he
could gain a fair profit and get economically independent. Rather then
that, the government has suffocated him constantly with its measures and
brought him down to the level of satisfying his own needs (and foremost)
the green market-place. Even when the peasant had the chance to place
his products on the world market, the state has held him as a dependent
through its corruptible companies. Relentlessly controlling  the fine
mechanism of prices of the indispensable production materials  for
agriculture - from petrol to fertilizer and chemicals - and the prices
of the agrarian products - corn; turnip; sunflower - the state has
shaped the peasant as a social category, and not as a market subject.
The present state offer to the ex-workers and future peasants, however
generous it might be, is coming down to level of personal survival of
these people.  Instead of the state enabling them a guaranteed profit
for the "bread" and besides "bread", it offers them to manufacture it
all themselves, mainly for their own needs. If the Serbian government
has the intention to make serious agrarian manufacturers from these
half-workers half-peasants, then it will - besides the favorable credits
- have to offer a lot more.  For example, a completely new system of
animating measures and prices, which then include implicitly radical
economic reforms and a market economy. Every other solution will be
unsuccessful, as the one in Cambodia. (NOTE: this text is of author
character. It represents personal reflection of the author.).

***************************************

Sender: Natasa Milenkovic >natascha@EUnet.yu< Date: Thursday, 10 Jun
1999 Subject: "peace has no alternative" - bg 10.06.

Tonight the peace treaty has been signed in Kumanovo...it has been done
by the same man who has repeated the slogan from the subject after
Dayton...with this kind of president the pacifists can jump together
from the Branko bridge...I cannot explain the atmosphere of this town to
you tonight, cars are driving around madly playing their car sirens,
shots from pistols, heavy machine-guns, heavy artillery does not
stop...Serbia has won morally once again! Till when, I am asking myself!
Even my most pessimistic dreams about remorse and catharsis of this
nation weren't this black... I am having a really difficult time, I have
been furious for the last week, since they started meeting in Macedonia
regarding the peace agreement....The last two days I have not been able
to control the hatred I have been radiating while walking through the
streets of this town...and everything surrounding me just supports even
more in this position. A correspondent of radio "Free Europe" in
Brussels was asked the question whether the ovk/uck will take over the
positions of the Serbian army and police once they leave, he answered:
"The Albanian heads were co-operative with the NATO heads all the time,
so there is no fear concerning this in the NATO headquarters." So,
no-one will ask the Albanians for anything, all this was happening to
protect this nation, so the war is over...if we revolt here in Serbia it
will be said "that is what we wanted to accomplish, see how effective
the bombs were" nothing more authentic, and there are manipulations from
every side...I do not know who can be happy with this peace, I can't
manage to calm down my stomach, and neither do I know how or on whom I
should throw this all out

Greetings to you all,

natasa

***************************************

Dear friends,

Info about Zaginflatch is available on request.

Basically, with this newsletter we want to inform the international
community (this is you) on how antiauthoritarians in Yugoslavia and
ex-Yugoslavia feel in these moments. Also, as people who have
experienced air raids and general alerts, we want to support our friends
in Yugoslavia who are experiencing this today. We don't want to
prejudice any political solutions to Kosovo and other ex-yu problems, we
just want to help our friends, and support them in this way. All
opinions published in Zaginflatch will be just personal ones. There is
no joint platform. Zaginflatch will bring you hardly any news in the way
mainstream media does it. For this kind of info we suggest you try cnn,
bbc or some other services. They are available to you anyway.. This is
meant to come from inside... Also, if you're into alternative news
sources, we suggest you try at http://www.freeb92.net.  ...

Zagreb Anarchist Movement (ZAP)

 ***************************************

the end

*** pseudoastronaut klase D ***












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