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Date sent: Tue, 06 Apr 1999 12:49:37 -0700
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From: Sid Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: THE SERBIANS' OVERWHELMING EMOTION IS DEFIANCE
The Vancouver Sun Tuesday 6 April 1999
THE SERBIANS' OVERWHELMING EMOTION IS DEFIANCE
As the air war hits home in Belgrade, daily protest
rallies in Revolution Square gather huge crowds.
By Lewis Mackenzie
Belgrade — There's a strange feeling as you drive into this
beleaguered city after the long haul by road from Budapest, Hungary.
(Driving is the only way to get here since commercial flights were
cancelled at the onset of hostilities between the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization and the Serbians, and a couple of nights ago cruise
missiles hit the airport terminal.)
It's strange since there's such a feeling of normality — people on the
streets going about their business, and traffic you'd associate more
with rush-hour on Ottawa's Queensway than with a city that's under
nightly attack from NATO forces.
I arrived on Sunday and my first reaction to the stream of cars heading
out of the city was that there was a spontaneous evacuation under way.
Then I tumbled to the fact that none of them seemed to be carrying any
luggage or possessions and I realized the truth: These were people just
out for a Sunday drive.
But beneath this appearance of life-as-usual, you quickly realize that in
this Serbian capital there's very little room — if any — for compromise
even at this stage of hostilities when the air war is really beginning to hit
home.
If anything, there's a mood of defiance and a growing animosity to the
West in general and NATO in particular.
The Serbs go to great lengths to warn western visitors that they can't
go wandering all over town, particularly if they are speaking English. It
just isn't safe and there have been some instances of journalists being
beaten up because they were from NATO countries participating in the
attacks.
That's perfectly understandable to me. After all, there were no
journalists from the U.S., Canada or Britain on the ground reporting in
Berlin during the Allied bombing of the Second World War.
My feeling that there's little room for compromise from the Serbs began
to set in on Monday when I met with the foreign minister of Yugoslavia,
Zivadin Jovanovic.
He lived in Toronto from age 22 to 31 and retains warm memories of
the time he spent in Canada.
But I quickly realized that Yugoslavia is resistant to any compromise.
And the feeling runs deep.
For the Serbs it would be better to go down to defeat than to
compromise.
Later in the day I met with the minister of health and ran into exactly the
same mindset.
And you don't only hear it from government officials and politicians. You
run into the same feelings in talking to taxi drivers, hotel staff and
survivors of cruise missile attacks on Belgrade's heating plant and
interior ministry.
Frankly, I'm not optimistic there is any room for any compromise at all.
There's no doubt that the population — and this applies particularly to
the young people — is in a defiant mood. You can feel it every day at
the rock-concert protest rally they stage in Belgrade's Revolution
Square. The pop stars sing, the crowds wave their placards and love
every minute of it. And they're gathering some of the biggest crowds
Belgrade has seen in decades.
The overwhelming emotion at these rallies is defiance.
These are first impressions, based on a mere 36 hours in Belgrade, but
I can't help having an uneasy feeling that we are on an increasingly
slippery slope.
And the feeling is so strong that I fear I may be right.
_________________________________________
Retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie of the Canadian Armed Forces
commanded United Nations troops during the siege of Sarajevo in the
Bosnian civil war in 1992.
[PEN-L:4893] (Fwd) THE SERBIANS' OVERWHELMING EMOTION IS DEFIANCE
ts99u-1.cc.umanitoba.ca [130.179.154.224] Tue, 6 Apr 1999 15:55:19 -0500
