"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

Remember that hot day two years ago when we met in Belgrade? First we had coffee, then chardonnay, then lunch, and babbled till midnight. That was the time when I needed one hour and twenty minutes bus ride to reach Belgrade, and busses from Novi Sad ran every twenty minutes. That was the time restaurants worked round the clock. That was the time you could buy cigarettes just around the corner ( you are such a chain smoker - the only smoker I know who always carries three packs of cigarettes with him!). That was the time all window panes in Bbelgrade were whole and most of them clean. That was the time I had a bad internet connection, so some of your emails traveled four days or did not reach me at all. That was the time power and water were not off. That was the time B92 was on the air and opposition press on the street newsstands. That was the time I could buy batteries for my walkman in any shop.

TODAY - exactly two years later - I'd need half a day to reach Belgrade (first cross the Danube in a boat, then wait endlessly for the rare, if not only, bus which may be cancelled the last minute because of no fuel), and who knows how much time to get back: going to Belgrade and coming back to Novi Sad in the very same day is almost a mission impossible, although they are only 80 kilometers away. Today, we can still have lunch in a restaurant (with many ifs: if we can afford it; if they have power to cook meat and coffee; if they serve food during the all-alert), but not dinner - restaurants close at 7 pm, same as discotheques and night clubs. Today you have to queue for hours to buy two packs of low quality and high tar cigarettes. Today not only window panes are broken but buildings of strategic, infrastructural and historical interest are turned to mere rubbles which become graves of Yugoslav kids and Chinese journalists. Now I have better Internet connection, but it is either threatened to be cut off, or it offers to my masochistic self the frightening news of ground troops, death tolls, renewed air attacks; today, I receive all your taut and condensed messages in time, but all they say is 'take care', 'stay safe', 'this will be over soon' - they express fear and concern, not tenderness. Today, we live intermittently, from one blast to another, between two graphic webs, in air raid sirens interludes; power is on and off, same as water, and your phone went dead for several weeks. the B92 is shut down, most opposition press off the streets. And batteries for walkmans are low quality if there are any to be bought.

And if this enormous change came in the course of two years, it would be easier to understand, almost logical and, in any case, we would more easily adapt to it. But the change happened in month and a half. A Yugoslav economist wrote in German magazine 'Stern' that Yugoslavia will need ten years to reach the standard of living it had on March 24th 1999 before 8 pm. On that day my monthly paycheck was less than $200 and three months late. Will I need ten years to reach that dismal cipher again? Will we need ten years to meet casually in Belgrade, have our chardonnay, coffee and lunch, and babble until the midnight bus starts for Novi Sad? Life in Yugoslavia was not all violets before the war - nineties have been an awful slope of standard leading downward - but now it is all weeds. Parched weeds.

We agreed, you and I, to use telepathy when all connections are cut off. No nato can take it away from us, can it? It would have to kill us first.

Love always,
"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

PS sleep tight and dream of me!

In an even more cynical way, the humiliations against the Kosovar Albanians are attributed the NATO aggression, and not to the genocidal bellifercious aims of the Serbian State. This flagrant change of the subject is tied to the demand that the bombing stop and political negotiations leads to a dangerous situation.

It is forgotten that the bombing begun because the Serbian State was not in favor of serious negotiations and a political solution, but was planning a war of annihilation of every single Albanian in Kosova. It is forgotten that the Albanian delegation to the peace conference in France signed an accord for a political compromise solution and the Serbian side used to make obstructions without offering any serious alternative for solution. It is also forgotten that before the start of NATO bombardments the Serbian military forces have realized a 'scorched earth' policy including the systematic destruction of towns,plundering, expulsion of hundred thousands of Albanians. Also forgotten are the killings, pogroms, massacres, wrappings, masse deportations, destruction of documents and all signs of cultural and religious identity of Albanians.

We, the deported Albanian intellectuals would , once again, want to protest against these propagandistic manipulations, which in essence provide an alibi to Serbia,s genocidal policies. We want to tell world democratic opinion that we are without any doubt in favor of punishing Serbia. The Serbian military machine, which has caused all the wars in former Yugoslavia, should be broken and annihilated by all means . We hope that the imminent defeat of the Serbian military forces will make possible the return of the deported people to Kosova, the normalization of the life, and the creation of a milieu for development of a democratic system.

Academician Rexhep Ismajli, linguist
Academician Ali Podrimja, writer
Academician Ali Aliu, writer
Academician Hivzi Islami, demographer
Ramiz Kelmendi, writer
Shkëlzen Maliqi, publicist
Astrit Salihu, philosopher
Kim Mehmeti, writer
Mufail Limani, publicist

Shkup [Skopje] / Tetova/ Gostivar, Macedonia

I already told you that most of the Albanians have been forced to leave their homes. Those were the lucky ones, though. There are still a great number of Albanians left in Kosova. Not because they want to remain, or because they have not been not touched by the Serbian forces--on the contrary: That was the plan! You see, the Serbian forces are using those same Albanians as 'live targets'!!! .... These were not Albanians who were trying to escape the NATO attacks! That is a LIE!!! The worst lie I have ever heard. (I don't know, how can Milosevic live with all his deeds?! Can that man really be called a human being?! ...).

The Serbian forces take the Albanians out of their homes; they take them under the bridges and use them as a shield to protect the bridges; they put them in buses and send them to those places where the Serbian forces and their munitions are hidden. They use them as a 'human shields' to protect their armed forces... So, when the NATO planes attack the army targets (which Serbian forces have previously 'protected' with Albanians), the Serbian TV and radio suddenly become so sympathetic with those dead Albanians that it makes me sick! We know what is going on...we know who has killed those Albanians...and NO ALBANIAN, no matter where s/he is right now, BLAMES NATO for those deaths!!!

The truth is that in NATO we see our 'life'--it's a shame that the only hope lies in 'airplanes' and 'bombs'; but, that's the truth. That's the only thing that might force Milosevic stop his 'actions'.

This is the fate of my people; and, this fate hurts - it hurts like hell...

"Artemis"
Montenegro

How cool. How humane. That is why this war is called humanitarian. The more NATO feeds on its victim, the more its appetite increases. The victim is never finished, the appetite never lost.

The new cool thing, the Serbia Wide Web (SWW), will surely become a substitute for the Internet when it's gone. My web page in the postNATO retrograde unplugged era of Yugoslav history will probably be called something like sww.poweroff.com/waterlack/insomnia.htm. Cool. But I cannot tell how it is going to be downloaded by you poor power consumers.

'New York is out of power, and the milk is turning sour' - that was the song Phoebe sings in the episode of 'Friends' when power is off. Like all of her songs, it is cute and crazy. The least trouble with the lack of power is sour milk, but it is one of the zillion powerlack troubles. This morning I went down town on foot. Due to the lack of gas, busses can be seen on the streets only very early in the morning and in the afternoon, at times of the once rush-hours.

Cigarette lines grow longer, and birds are rarer - pidgins can be spotted, but no swallows at all.

I wanted to pay some bills, but the post office was crowded as if it sold cigarettes, so I gave up. I hate waiting, bills can be paid anytime and I do not smoke. I won't queue for water either, I have some reserves at home.

It was a hot summerlike day, and no water to shower yourself after an exhausting walk, despite the reserves.

I walked the streets with new 'Vreme' in my hands, reading a witty and penetrating article on Serbian reactions to Harold Pinter's protest against bombing as I walked. Our media managed to turn him into some kind of Serbian saviour because of his just protest against NATO bombing. The writers union of Serbia wants to give him a honorary membership and present it as an act of gratitude of all Serbs to Harold Pinter, to which the author of the text strongly opposed.

I really loath such kind of nationalistic kitsch. Serbian friends and serbian enemies my foot! Writers are judged by their talent, not by their opinion. I am not sure if Serbian culture sees the talent of Harold Pinter as it should. S few years ago, an actress asked me to translate Pinter's play 'lover', a wonderful theatre piece about sexual fantasies of a married couple, perfectly stageable and very provoking. I enjoyed fighting with Pinter's terse and taut idiom, and was quite proud of the result. However, the actress had enormous problems to put the play on stage. When the production, done in extremely low budget, finally reached the audience, it reaped a huge success with young people. Still, its run was short - the theatre manager decided to take it off the repertoire without an explanation. I tried very hard to publish the translation, but nobody seemed interested. Not commercial enough for a literary zine, too short for a book, find a sponsor and we will publish that Pinter piece... these were the answers. But now, when Harold Pinter is promoted into a serbian friend, he will fit onto every stage and into every magazine. Oh, I bet that thousands of stupid and greedy Yugoslav publishers (and being a publisher in Yugoslavia mostly equals being a petty thief, believe me, I had my books and translations published and regretted the experience) will go after Pinter. I will spit into their faces. Harold pinter is a major world writer, not a Serbian nationalist. You need him, but he does not need you.

So I walked reading. Read walking. What would a psychoanalyst say? The girl walks with her Walkman and sunglasses on, she reads papers as she walks and muses on Harold Pinter. She never stumbles, never falls, but she takes no notice of things around her, neither sees nor hears, she passes by all the queues, as if queuing is none of her business. She is not quite herself, really. She should queue and watch her step instead of thinking of Harold Pinter. She behaves like her country does: she is absorbed in herself, not looking around, sees only what she will and if something happens to her, if a car or an angry kid hits her, she will just wonder at what happened. Isolation is not always splendid.

"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

"This decision is a result of Executive Order signed by president Bill Clinton, which forbids providing of services to Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)"

IMO, I think that they are referring to section 2, paragraph (c) of EO 13121, signed on 5th of May 1999, which follows:

"(c) any transaction or dealing by a United States person, wherever located, in goods, software, technology (including technical data), OR SERVICES, regardless of country of origin, for exportation, reexportation, sale, or supply to, or exportation from or by, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) or the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Government of the Republic of Serbia, or the Government of the Republic of Montenegro. This prohibition includes, without limitation, purchase, sale, transport, swap, or brokerage transactions in such items, and approving, financing, insuring, facilitating, or guaranteeing any such transactions."

The information about closing the Internet satellite feed to Yugoslavia is confirmed also by the official representative of Loral Orion company in Yugoslavia.

At the moment of writing (19:45 CET, 13th of May 1999) it seems that all satellite links are still working, but I think it's only a matter of hour or minute when a break will occur.

I would like to stress that Loral Orion's links are not the only connections for Yugoslav ISP's, but some of them (like infosky.net and bits.net in Serbia and cg.yu in Montenegro) are totally dependant from Loral Orion's satellite feed.

This is also not the first threat to Yugoslav Internet links and Internet community. I will shortly summarise what happened in the past two months since this war started:

- Together with Radio B-92, their Internet division (opennet.org) also went down. All of Opennet's classrooms and New Media Labs (like cybeRex) are closed. All of their Internet projects (aimed to education about Internet issues and development of Yugoslav cyberspace) are put on hold or completely cancelled. - When NATO destroyed the second bridge in Novi Sad one fiber-optic cable carrying Internet traffic was broken. - When NATO hit one building in Belgrade downtown a great deal of computer equipment, belonging to BITS ISP, was totally destroyed. - NATO is targeting Post offices in many large cities. Three days ago more than 18.000 people lost their phone connections in city of Uzice (similar thing happened in city of Pristina). - NATO is using graphite bombs to COMPLETELY disable major Serbian power plants. During five days, more than half of population in Serbia (approx. 5 million of people) did not have electric power.

This attempt of shutting down Internet satellite feeds to Yugoslavia is a good reminder that Cyberspace is not situated in some kind of a vacuum and that our REAL governments CAN and WILL do anything that suits their interests. Just like corporate invertebrates, they will do all of that regardless of our communication customs and ethics we developed over years on the Net.

I'm calling all the people who still believe in freedom of expression on the Net, to rise their voice against the policy of hate, policy of isolation and policy of intolerance.

All the best from Belgrade,

Slobodan Markovic | http://solair.eunet.yu/~twiddle Internodium Project | http://www.internodium.org.yu

Although in shock and very scared, people giggled. Even the kids were not grouchy as they usually are when taken down into the shelter in the middle of their tightest sleep. Two three year old girls sat in their chairs, eating peanuts. 'This is like in a cinema', one of them said. We all laughed. They were so Tarantino-cool.

And cinema it was, Tarantinian for sure. What NATO hit with six missiles, as it turned out later, was the already damaged and luckily vacated Novi Sad television building, and the refinery, which is now hit almost by default. What happened to the hosts of small family houses in the vicinity of the television building nobody dared think. Sky turned blazing yellow, as opposed to the darkened tv screen. so NATO attempted at putting out our tv screens again. The worst is that we have already gone numb at demolishing bridges, factories, transmitters and schoolbuildings - we only pray for human losses to be minimal, and only hope to survive. Let the life go on, barefooted, without bridges, without electricity and running water, without news and media. Just let it go on. Let us live.

After coming back from the shelter - It was half past five - I opened my mailbox, and found an alarming message on how the US Government ordered Loral Orion company to shut down its satellite feeds for Internet customers in Yugoslavia. There we are. The overall putting out. First NATO wanted to block the flow of state-run news, and thus force Yugoslavs to fall for the alliance. Now, NATO wants to erase 11 million of us from the public mind. It wants to take our faces and voices from us, it wants to stop us from telling the story of the ultimate tragedy. Maybe NATO does this in order to suppress its guilt of bombing innocent people? The easiest way to forget is to turn victims into figures. The victims become figures when they are denied their identity. The identity is denied when you are deprived of your voice, of telling your story, of possessing your own experience. Is yugoslavia going to become a country without its narrative - without the narrative equalling its very existence?

"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

What is the Americans' actual long-term goal? Is it democratic, liberal, open society in Serbia? Is it protecting and preserving Albanian minority in Serbia (by the way – in our language, "Kosovar" is every inhabitant of Kosovo, not only an ethnic Albanian!)? Borders are sacrosanct? Is the goal encompassing all of the above?

If so, let us review it: Before the bombing, according to UN HCR tere were 45.000 of Albanian refugees. Now there are, according to the same source, 650.000. Serbia has never, never been further from the kind of society depicted above. We have this "rallying around the flag" syndrome full-blown. There is no public opposition, opposition parties are either hibernating or their activities are not reported. And even people like me, who were never "organised" (that is how the communists used to differentiate: "Are you organised, comrade?") in a party, but have always spoken their mind, are quiet: just rumoring or not speaking at all or even fleeing the country. One, obvious reason is: there has already been one murder of a very, VERY prominent public personality a news editor whom we believed to be protected by the very notoriety (he even testified before US Congress (Senat?) Commission in regard to the infamous new Serbian Law on Information. There were many beatings up and disappearances (I keep remembering my brief stay in Argentina, and the anguish of those left behind) and quite a few arrests. None of the above except the assassination was reported in the media. It is just mouth to mouth, hearsay info, but often very reliable. So, obviously, there is fear, but not all of it is for fear. Often, as in my case writing to you, it is this huge dilemma – what is the purpose, what are the goals and how far can we go being Machiavellian – permitting all means to achieve the righteous purpose?

Lots of those leading the NGO community are "somewhere" in Europe. It is a tricky business heading an NGO now. But, most of us have stayed. Why? Because we believe in what we are doing, although we no longer believe in the outside help. Social Democrats did not have to explain over and over again that "collateral damage" was just that – collateral! It is so demeaning – ending your life as "collateral".

Lots of indiscriminate damage was suffered by people who had nothing to do with present regime. On the contrary. Cities and towns hit most hard are those that opposed M most steadfastly. They do not understand. And I don't understand. Only 1/10 of the money allocated to the war was quite sufficient to support YU Premier Mr. Ante Markovic (a Croat, by the way) in 1990, a reformist who might have saved Yugoslavia. No help came. Then there was the second chance (not often given): Premier Milan Panic, an ardent anticommunist who was born in the Socialist YU, but fled away and made his fortune in California, USA. Again, lots of words, no actual help. He composed an expert Government and tried lots of good things. But to finish what he was doing, he needed money. It did not come.

In '96-'97 there were rallies that held whole world captive, and with ex-Premier Gonsales, we have won. The Coalition "Zajedno" was a trumpet, a winning card. Why not help it? Why? It is not that US are cheap. They do not mind billions of $ for a war effort, so why was it so stingy at the time? It is just the question of when and how the money is spent. Is it well spent now?

Let us turn to the very impersonal question of "whose victims" we are. Impersonal, and for us, for the large part - irrelevant.... If the point is in choosing the lesser evil or the minor harm, there is no question. All deaths are equally distressing and equal trauma.

If you go on to say that we are victims of our government, but bombed by some other and that is going to deliver us from evil, I can not see how and I don't see the difference. I knew and I lectured about shortcomings of my government, but I used to glorify yours. If it is all the same, if there is no real difference, if we are equally expendable to both – what the hell! I won't teach any more. I will speak, but my heart won't be in it.

[It is] said that "some" of civilian targets are legitimate. Which ones? What is the line demarcating YES and NO? Everything can become "legitimate" i.e. military target, come to look at it. Tobacco factory – "Yes" they said, soldiers smoke, and if there is no tobacco, it will demoralize them. How far can it go? Mr. Draskovic took it to the extreme: why not poison the water – soldiers drink it too. A few days later, NATO brought it to extreme: they cut off power in 75% of Serbia. Including hospitals. Military needs power! I don't know how far it can go and how far your public can go on without protesting. How far can YOU go?

Furthermore, please, let me remind you that basically, we do not have professional Army. It does not consist of professionals trained, favored and well paid and dedicated. It consists of people under call up, people like you and me, often those faces you could see during The Protest. They do not have a choice. It was you who made a musical (???) "The Hair". Your people should remember.

And in the end. I can not say "no matter", about the plight of Albanians. It is tragic and I, as a Serb (this is the first time I declared myself as such: I was born and bread as Yugoslav), am deeply disturbed by the knowledge that some of my compatriots did it. It is not different from what I used to say about Moslems, Croats AND Serbs living in Bosnia and Croatia. On the other hand, I can not oversee what the other side did. You can try and legitimize many atrocities if you just follow your heart and support the "underdog". Even I used to do it in regard to Albanians (as I would for any other minority fighting for their rights). But I DO NOT condone terrorist attacks and the fraction of Albanians that took to terrorism lost all my understanding, let alone my support. This is not to say that Albanian people do not have my sympathies, I grieve no less for them than I do for any other people or my people, for the matter. They indeed are my people, we are citizens of the same state (not to go to homilies like – one planet) and victims of the same authoritarian regime. I do not have any "preferential treatment" concerning ethnicity or religion or whatever, and I am comfortable in knowing that I have spoken on behalf of non-Serbs when it was least acceptable here....

I can not, although I wish to, make amends to terrorized and terribly unhappy Albanian refugees. Not now and not while bombs keep falling. I wish I could, but I can not. And no one can. How much money was spent to alleviate their horrid circumstances? The cost of one or two "sorties" by NATO (out of 20.000 by now)? The problem as you can see it is not (and let us not deceive ourselves) the problem of their returning home, but the problem of their independence. It is not going to be easy; it is (probably) not going to be solved by whatever bombs NATO sends. There is too much sentiment and too much emotion (reversible, I believe, under some conditions) that prevent Kosovo to just "go away". And by the way, about every second friend of mine in Belgrade is "displaced". My students showed to me yesterday a flyer received by NATO promising inhabitants of my neighborhood a 5 tons bomb and asking them to "take precautions". What precautions? That bomb is just a step away from A bomb.

I am too tired now. I wish to continue our conversation some time soon. By the way the siren is on in Bgd. I need to go to my bed that does not protect me, but I feel better in it.

Slobodanka Nedovic
Professor
Faculty of Law
University of Belgrade

After high school, the college years came. I went to Kosova. Completed four years of studies there. The situation was almost the same ... Again, I used to see uniformed men. The only difference there was that I used to see two kinds of uniforms 'taking care of our safety': police uniforms and army uniforms... My best memory from that time is not my graduation day (the day most of the people remember all their lives); my 'best memory' is the day when a soldier stopped me in the street and started touching my body with his machine gun in the middle of the day, in the center of Pristina! Someone might say that a little touch didn't kill me. Well, that someone may be right. I wasn't killed; I was only given a 'present': a nice memory from my college years!

Soon after graduating I got married and moved to Montenegro. Similar stories--different actors. You were still being treated as a 'scum' because of the fact that you were Albanian. You were still very careful when you spoke to a Serbian or a Montenegrin, because one wrong word and the whole family would have been questioned by the SUP (the former Ministry of Internal Affairs), and some family members ended up in prison (these were the days when the so-called democratic Serbian way started). Beautiful youth! A youth filled with some 'beautiful' memories...

Why did I bother you with my memories? Well, not because I was trying to advertise my memoirs; I wrote these things down because I wonder where were all these people, who write to you every single day, during those years?! Why didn't these 'worried' humans show any humanity when my people were being tortured & humiliated? Where were their legal 'norms' and 'acts' back then? Gathering dust?

"Artemis"
Montenegro

I have often dreamed of cats this year. Either they lie on my blanket why I sleep, or walk around my flat and I talk to them in spanish. All kinds of cat situations happen in my dreams. But this little dark gray kitten was just underneath my computer, calm and unassuming, very peaceful and demanding nothing. It was so silent and weak that I somehow felt obliged to take care of it.

I got up, contemplated my first morning coffee - I take my coffee looooong, you know - and went to my faculty on foot. I passed by a few cigarette queues, a few somber faces and several gay doggies. The wind was blowing, it was one of those cool spring days which smell of rain. I met a friend who complained about his computer, a brand new Pentium which crashed because of the unstable voltage. 'Everybody tells me I would be better off with an oldie of a computer', he complained. 'they endure this power situation much better.' I chuckled and told him he was absolutely right - my PC bought in 1994 and not updated since then is perfectly obedient. It just resets from time to time out of the blue, but I hope the two of us will weather this all.

Then I came to my faculty, and the written exam in American literature started. Some fifteen students came, and I friendly urged them to write their essays in the shortest time possible. Better to finish earlier than to be interrupted by sirens. Two of them were an hour late because the busses were late. Every student has his own adventurous story - they travel for hours because trains get stuck on the railroad or busses run short of gas; many of them have to travel the longer way because roads are damaged and bridges destroyed. One of them who lives in Novi Sad told me how a bomb fell very near her building: the building broke in two, walls cracked and the water from her aquarium spilt! Imagine that.

While they were writing their essays, I was reading a Nietzsche I grabbed this morning in passing - his booklet on presocratic philosophers. You would not believe how absorbed I was. Now a pile of essays on lost generation and Emily Dickinson wait to be graded. That is how the seventh week of war will be ended. Supposedly.

"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

The office in Montenegro, in Ulcinj, is the third office of the Humanitarian Law Center. The office in Pristina does not exist any more. Last time I was there on 3 April, was my second visit to Pristina since 24 March. Through the open door, I saw books and paper scattered all over the place, desks with no computers, and the usual mess after a police search. Mentor Nimani, one of my lawyers, lived in the neighborhood. I will never forget 29 March in Pristina, and Mentor on the staircase of his block, at his wit's end from terror and ready to flee Kosovo. We had been in contact on daily basis in the previous days, so I had known he lived in fear that someone might come, knock on his door and kill him, but the terror I saw in his eyes made up my mind then and there to depart immediately. I had already found my other staff, so we were ready to go. Vjollca stayed in Pristina. Her father was adamant that she stayed with her family and that they were not to loose contact. She phoned me from Albania several days later. All families from her part of town had been expelled, transported by train to Blace, a village close to Macedonian border. She spent a few days there, out in the open together with a group of 20,000 people. They were put on buses and taken to the Albanian border by night.

On that 29 March, we started from Pristina towards the Macedonian border, Ariana, Nora, Kushtrim and some friends whose names I cannot disclose for their personal security. Several hundred cars followed us. We returned after we had received information that the border had been closed, and when we saw policemen wearing masks on their faces. We returned to Pristina, dropped Ariana off, as she decided to stay until my next visit, and turned Belgrade bound. I do not know how we managed to leave Kosovo, there must be God somewhere. A car with three Albanians and two Serbs. We cleared all check points, each in fear that they will discover who we were, arrest and separate us. Mentor's fear did not disappear in Belgrade. It was easier for him, but that was no freedom either. Several days later, we went to Montenegro, Mentor then went to Albania and subsequently to the US. Nora stayed in Montenegro working with refugees for a while. She left for Budapest on 4 May. She, too, is US bound. Ariana was waiting for my arrival in Pristina. She was looking after our Jeep. She left for Macedonia on 5 May. She is currently visiting camps and interviewing refugees. She plans to return to Kosovo as soon as it is safe to do so.

Whenever I show up in Pristina, people can hardly believe it possible. It amazes me that I manage to do it. The first time I went back, on 27 March, I took a taxi to the bus station in an attempt to find a bus for Kosovo. Some ten meters away from the bus station, it occurred to me to ask the driver if he would take me to Bujanovac, a small place 100 kilometers from Pristina, thinking that I would be able to catch a lift to Kosovo from there. He agreed to my proposal, and when we were near Bujanovac, he accepted, for a generous fee, to take me all the way to Pristina. If it had not been for him, I could not have taken three Albanians out of Kosovo. He had a way of chatting with policemen, an air of nonchalance when clearing check points, asking about fuel and cigarettes, that left an impression he was one of their own kind. I went with him two more times. He would always ask, "who are we getting out this time" before each trip.

When I travel to Kosovo, on roads with no traffic, with police and military check points, I never think about the possibility of something bad happening to me. Riding through Serbia, my primary concern is fuel. I keep bothering the driver about how much fuel we have already spent. When I see the road sign for Kosovska Mitrovica, I start to look round. The villages were intact until 5 May. They were obviously empty, but there was no arson. I took a note that on 23 April, I met a large group of people on the same road, who were walking towards Vucitrn. These people were returning to their homes having spent two weeks in woods hiding, and were anxious whether the police would allow them to go back and whether their houses were still standing. They were looking at me in utter disbelief when I told them they should return home, that people were going back to Pristina from the border. Unfortunately, these same people as well as others from Vucitrn, have been expelled from their homes. On 5 May, I saw that the town was empty, and many houses were on fire. The same day, I passed through Mitrovica. There were neither police nor military in the town center. There wasn't a soul to be seen. Large sections of town had been destroyed. One could see that houses had been plundered first, and then set on fire. There were some people in the suburbs. Serb parts of town were intact. Afterwards, when I talked to Albanians from Mitrovica who came to Montenegro, I found out that approximately 30,000 Albanians were expelled from Mitrovica on 15 April, and that they had been ordered to leave for Montenegro. They traveled on foot, it took them three days to reach Dubovo, a village 80 kilometers away from Mitrovica, where the Yugoslav Army stopped them. The army kept them there for three days, when three officers announced there had been an "order for refugees to return home". They were put on buses and shipped back to burnt down Mitrovica. Hunger and fear made many of them leave Mitrovica again and go to Montenegro.

Every time I enter Pristina, I feel relieved. I say to myself, "It's still standing". Bajram Kelmendi is gone. He was murdered on the first night of NATO bombardment. He was taken from home with his sons that first night. Fehmi Agani is gone, too. I never managed to meet him in Pristina. He was last seen at Bajram Kelmendi's funeral on 27 March. People were saying he was in Pristina in hiding, changing houses, and that it was good he was not going out. I tried to find him, but no one knew where he was. Now I wonder if it was possible that he was still free at the time, and if it was his decision not to communicate with anybody. I shall not have peace until I find out how he was murdered and what was happening with him after Kelmendi's funeral. He was an old friend. I can still hear his words: "How is it going Natasa, are you less busy, how is your health, your family?"; and in the same breath: "There is hope, we must believe that things will get better". A long time ago, in 1994, we both attended the Conference on the Hague Tribunal in Bern. I remember those days for two reasons. Although there were only a few participants from Serbia, he spoke Serbian in front of a huge audience, the majority of them Albanians. He said he was doing that because of his Serb friends, out of respect for their work. One day during the Conference, he invited me to meet some of his former students who had arrived from Germany and Switzerland to attend the part of the Conference concerning Kosovo. When he introduced me, I realized that he had not told them he had invited a Serb woman. At that time, there were few occasions for Serb and Albanian intellectuals to sit together and talk. I could see that his students were stunned, but soon they welcomed me and apologized for the fact they did not speak very good Serbian.

The news about Agani's death has reached me in Montenegro. At the hotel reception desk, I have been told that a cousin of Agani's called from Pristina and said he had been arrested. The next day, the news said his body had been found near Lipljan.

Natasa Kandic
Executive Director
Humanitarian Law Center
Belgrade

I hope that the ICJ will not be prejudiced against the plaintiff and will carefully scrutinize the action. It is greatly important for the system of International law, if it is to exist, that the law is upheld no matter who is requesting it. Perhaps it is the most important that the law be upheld precisely in the case like this, when the defendants are the most powerful and the richest countries of the world. An analogy can be drawn to the situation when a powerful politician or a very rich man in town (who may be even a close friend with the judge) is brought to court by the poorest or the least popular of its inhabitants on an accusation of breaking the law. If the judge fails to uphold the law out of fear, or out of wish to avoid inconveniencing the powerful friend, then he is doing a very bad favor to the citizens of his town.

The law in this case is that only the UN Security Council can decide on the use of force against a sovereign country (except in the case of self-defense). Even if a country is accused of violating human rights (i.e. the case of humanitarian intervention, that the NATO claims to be engaged in in this conflict) it is still solely for the Security Council to pass the decision on the use of force against that country.

Professor Maja Stanivukovic
Faculty of Law
University of Novi Sad

There is just one question that we should and must ask ourselves: Is the life of one person (man, woman, child) more valuable than the life of another? I am not talking here about armed people or politicians, I'm talking about civilians, ordinary people trying to survive their ordinary lives, people who will never be asked to make any important decisions, people who are not in the position to decide about anybody else's life, not even their own.

If one thinks that the moral obligation is to bomb Serbian civilians for the benefit of the ethnic Albanian civilians, what makes him different from a Kosovo Serb who is supporting the ethnic cleansing for his own benefit?

That person must be aware that this manner of thinking puts him in the same category as those people who support the killing of innocent men, women and children and therefore he can stop considering himself to be a responsible and humane member of the world society. I don't deny his right to think whatever he wants, but at least, he has to accept that he has justified the deaths of innocent people.

Making choices in a war like this is the duty of every thinking human being. And, believe me, it is much harder to make those choices when you are in a constant fear for your life (i.e. for the Serbian and Albanian people) than when you are sitting far away from bombs or any kind of atrocities.

I'm trying hard to escape that awful circle of hatred despite the fact that my country is ruined and will remain that way for many years, despite the fact that people (very much like myself and my 17 month old baby) have been killed on their way to the marketplace in the middle of the day, despite the fact that kids have been killed in the so-called shelters or in their own homes (like the three year old girl from Belgrade whose picture I will never forget), despite the fact that people who are living on life support machines and babies in incubators were cut of from electricity, despite the fact that a 30 year old woman living on the 15th floor in my neighborhood died of a heart attack two nights ago, leaving a 5 months old baby. We can only hope that we will survive the bombs, but there's almost nothing else to hope for in this now destroyed country. Despite all that, I still resist those revengeful and furious feelings that I might have for the Albanians, Americans, the British or any other people.

Although I am furious at the governments which are responsible for what is going on (mine included), I made a choice not to support violence for any reason--no matter what risks this may involve. And still, I would never consider myself a person with the proper morality and the right to judge whether someone else should live or die.

So, please, before rushing to the conclusion that the Serbs deserve what they are getting, ask yourself who are those people you are condemning to possible death, and certainly a life of hardship. What is the difference between NATO killing civilians in Nis, Belgrade, Aleksinac, Surdulica... and Serbs forces killing Albanians? If you still think that the killing of some civilians is just and noble be aware that that puts you in the same gang with those (Serb paramilitary, KLA, Talebans, IRA...) who also claim to have noble and just goals. I belong to the opposite side.

[name withheld]
lawyer
Belgrade

You know, those are the tactics the military police have been using lately. They go to peoples' homes and force the men to join the army (and that's what makes them leave...). They are just trying to scare people and to create panic in Montenegro as well. The military jails are filled with men who refused to answer the army's order to join the Yugoslavia army forces.

Milosevic can't 'survive' without war. He is trying to get Montenegro involved in his mess. The government of Montenegro is not able to do anything (even the vice-president, Dr. Novak Kilibarda is being prosecuted by the military court!). The politicians, especially the president of Montenegro (Milo Djukanovic), are trying very hard to make an agreement with the army and keep Montenegro out of this 'war', but it's not working... Milosevic has changed all the army personnel who don't follow his orders. I just hope that the people of Montenegro will be smart enough not to take part in Milosevic's dirty games (I think the West should do everything to give all the support to Djukanovic, who is really doing a marvelous job right now -- he really needs it. It is not easy to keep Montenegro out of this conflict. There are very close family ties between Serbia and Montenegro. A very close history as well...)

"Artemis"
Montenegro

Up till yesterday night, it hasn`t been hit at all, except at the bridge of Beska nothern of Belgrade, but we have been told from NATO officials that bridges are to be destroyed anyway.

Yesterday, Supreme Command of Yugoslav Army ordered beginning a withdrawal of army and police from Kosovo, with a prospect of bringing down the presence of security forces to the status in the peace-time.

I do not intend to go futher into reasons why this hasn`t been enough, but I would only like to point to JURIST readers the fact that the very same one and only high-way has been cut as a communication line yesterday night, in the first night that succeded the beginning of army withdrawal. This was done by destroying a junktion near the town of Velika Plana, one hundred kilometers south of Belgrade.

Is it possible to conclude that withdrawal from Kosovo is not what NATO officials want at all? I mean, if they do not recognize the present announcement of withdrawal as satisfactory, that is one thing, but cutting the highway communication (the junktion of course can be repaired, and army units could go a long way around, but nevertheless the trafic on that spot is severely jammed) that is used for any withdrawing is completely another thing.

Dusan Rakitic Srbic
Student
Belgrade Law Faculty

Milica Camilovic
Belgrade

The only change (apart from destroyed infrastructure, the emptying stores and diminishing fuel) can be seen in the shelter, which is visited more and more involuntarily. I said 'visiting' - for us all, descending into the shelter becomes a ritual negligently performed. We come down, and soon we come back. People prefer standing at the front door of their buildings, sharing news, comments and rumours. Night or day alerts, it is the same. Only when planes and explosions are heard and felt, people rush into the building; otherwise, they just exchange facts and lies with their eyes nailed to the sky.

The worst local philosophers and military quasiexperts are found among retired people, a very peculiar social group in my country: their pensions are really awfully low, insufficient for anything except bread and milk, but they have turned their underdog status into the utmost benefit: figuratively speaking, they insist in being first served even when they are last to come. They swarm in all the peace- and wartime lines (either for bread or cigarettes, at the doctor's or in the post office, it does not matter, the important is to while the time away in queuing) and molest other people with endless foreboding comments. If the refinery is bombed, they are the first to breathe the poisonous smell; when the all-alert siren is heard, they are the first to stand and deliver the list of targets. One retired woman heard in the cigarette-line that the post office building will be bombed, and she raised alarm in the police station; another reported that all university campuses will be bombed at noon; I personally know an old lady who went from door to door to warn her neighbourhood to take the mirrors off the wall, for they might fall and crack because the series of detonations will happen "tonight at two o'clock sharp"; in my shelter, there is an old eccentric who chases people out of the shelter every time when the rain is falling, because 'nato planes cannot fly in the rain, since pilots get wet'. Having such people in the headquarters, NATO would win the war in an instant: either the whole Yugoslavia would be shocked to death by a single dark premonition, or it would die laughing to this wise guys comments. Rhetoric wins.

"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

You asked me about the G8 plan. Personally I find that any peace-plan is better than war. Although it seems very "flexible", in order to leave enough space for different ex post interpretations, I find it a solid basis to start negotiations about the peace. The real problem with it is that there is no mention when one can expect the end of bombing. But, we all know that one thing is what is written in papers and another what diplomats decide through secret diplomatic channels. Therefore, I have a poor feeling that we lawyers have to stand by and watch the game. This conflict shows clearly that legality and other fundamental principles of our science are not so important for politicians, as they can twist them all with more or less good excuse.

Dr. Sima Avramovic
School of Law
University of Belgrade

My mother woke up every hour to ask about the sirens. I was also a doubting Thomas: I got up at seven this morning only because I was anxious to check the web site inet.co.yu to see what had been hit last night. What I read was hard to believe: the airport near Nish was hit by, I think, two missiles, and NATO called it a day. Its planes lingered all along the borders of Yugoslavia, but did not cross them, hampered either by bad weather (which, to be honest, was not THAT bad) or by fear that unexpected embassies may suddenly pop up at the places where intended targets should be.

I also found out that his CNN-ness Ted Turner warns about the possible nuclear war of Russia and China against US. I bet he himself will either make it or fake it, wage it or stage it. The idea of Christian Amanpour reporting from a god-knows-where with a nuclear mushroom behind her is worth considering. Or dear Ms. Rubin could launch a nuke on Beijing herself in front of the cameras, live! The nuclear war offers endless possibilities, but I hope Mr Turner will finally decide to fake it in a hollywood studio - it is cheaper and more effective that way.

If anything, this war has made me such a skeptic, not only because of CNN's staging manufacture. This war was caused by lies, half-truths, manipulation, 'faulty intelligence' of all kinds, personal fantasies and sick obsessions - now it is dipped in them. So I doubt everything I see and hear on tv: all the rubbles look the same (oklahoma equals chinese embassy in belgrade); all Kosovo refugees are dressed alike and driven in identical tractors, and although they are reported to flow in constantly, the total number of them in the refugee camps yesterday stayed the same as four weeks ago - some seven hundred thousand; all the NATO's satellite shots of the targets are identical blurs and smears; the refugees, spokespersons and politicians babble the very same stories mechanically on and on, like puppets; it is very strange how the Chinese anti-nato demonstrations can appear quite peaceful on Serbian tv, whereas ferocious and riotous on the BBC World and CNN. Everything about this war seems to be staged and acted, at least diminished or exaggerated, and actually deliberately pictured from an angle which is determined in advance.

Every TV channel carefully nourishes lacunae, every channel is silent about something. Every TV channel finds its own tip of the war iceberg to focus on, neglecting the mammoth part which is hidden under the water. Serbian tv is silent about refugees from Kosovo, CNN and BBC neglect and diminish the debris and suffering caused by NATO attacks, whereas the only small piece of news about fights between Yugoslav army and the terrorist organization misnamed Kosovo Liberation Army I got from Bosnian TV channel! So it seems I will have to spend my life in front of the TV screen, digging for the pieces of the truth which is never to be reconstructed...

But I know one thing to be real - and that is my own experience of this war. The butterflies in my stomach when the sirens are heard, the thunder of my heartbeats at every detonation, the sight of destroyed Novi Sad bridges, the shattered window panes of my Faculty. This morning when I was entering the building, a huge piece of glass fell right in front of me. I instinctively stepped away and then looked up: pigeons were walking on the window sill, and one of them pushed a piece of glass broken in a recent explosion. That shattered piece of glass may have hurt somebody, , not seriously as a piece of cluster bomb, but still enough. Whatever we may know, or want to know about this war, its immense so called "collateral damage" done to people and buildings will be too true to be good.

"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

My dreams have become nightmares: all the people I have ever felt to have had hurt, wronged or alike, come visiting. And it is all so aggravated. I remember a hiker in the bus (I think he was Australian) some five years ago asking direction to Hostel Mladost. I gave him a direction (unintentionally, of course) and it made him walk 500 meters longer than necessary. I felt very bad about it, and now, even he visited my dreams leading me into some foreign and deserted frightening place. Not to mention other wrongs I have accumulated in years. They are all haunting me now. Does anyone have (Freud?) an explanation?

I keep my classes going although sometimes my job feels like "bodily defending bridges". I have 12-20 students out of 25 hundred and I feel lost in the great hall usually seating hundreds.

I try to keep track with what your (US,UK) officials are saying. It seems to me that Clinton is ready to make some "patchwork" deal with Milosevic, once again recognizing him as the only relevant power in FRY. The end as I see it will be: Albanians out of Kosovo (what percentage of Muslims, Serbs and Croats returned to their land in Bosnia?), some kind of impotent "international forces" deployed, Milosevic strengthened in his seat: proclaimed a "national hero" and a president for life. The opposition (democratic) in Serbia crushed, no one to oppose Milosevic. Being in opposition now means (?) death sentence "by the people" and not courts (as JUL put it).. And then you are met in a street, in front of your building, somewhere …

If the West' best is: you will have Milosevic, all the devastation, and Albanian refugees, and we will have Victory! - think twice about it. Was that the war goal?

Slobanka Nedovic
Professor
Faculty of Law
University of Belgrade

Very often these days, we hear the NATO officials and spokesmen, addmitting to have made a mistake, and expressing their regret to the victims of their negligence. In the legal system on which I was brought up, the addmittance of a wrongful act and remorse cannot free the perpetrator from responsibility - it can only lead to a lower punishment if considered as sincere and coupled with other exonerating circumstances.

It will be interesting to see how will national and international courts respond to possible claims for damages arising out of this conflict and to criminal indictments against the responsible officials. Will they accept jurisdiction? Will they uphold the case of the victims or, more likely, lean in favor of their governments, in case of national courts, or in favor of more powerful nations, in case of international courts?

Another issue that needs further review is whether someone should be held responsible for violation of human rights of citizens of Yugoslavia. For example, the right to sleep quietly, the right of children and young people to go to school, the right of people to work, to breathe clean air, to freely move from one place to another, to obtain medicine, to remain free from threaths to life and limb, or the right of a person to bury his dead peacefully (without the sound of the air raid alarm) have been constantly violated. When NATO struck the electric power plants in Serbia last week, according to its own sources, it deprived 70% of the country of electricity (the "human" side of this was that it was only temporary). All citizens of Yugoslavia living here, whether Serbian, Hungarian or Muslim, whether voting for Milosevic or against, rich or poor, minor or come of age, equally sufferred from this disruption. One might say that this is war, but it has not been officially declared, and even if it has, some basic human rights of the civilian population should be respected. Otherwise, the idea that a total war against a nation is permissible will be endorsed.

Professor Maja Stanivukovic
Faculty of Law
University of Novi Sad

My right to do my job, to practise law, is jeopardized, my life with my family is jeopardized, just as all my belifs and a right to have my own opinion - I believe that NATO agression has placed us in a gheto, ostracized us and locked us up in some sort of contrentracion camp.

To some people in the West this is not a war, because it is a simulated war, but to me this war is real. It is true that this is an aerial war with new technology, but that tehnology allows the basic evil in humans to make that war more efficient, to increase the number of casualities; and altough NATO presents this war as a sort of moral intervention, mor explosives than in entire World War II have beeen spent. It is more tecnologically advanced than Vietnam - but it is it's next phase.

The grounds for this intervention aren't important any more, even to it's creators. In my last address I've mentioned that this is a Macchiavellian thesis, the cause justifies the means, but in this case the cause justifies the cause. Primary reasons are turned into the by-product of the consequence, so that the only important is the result. One of the main particles of law is "causa". Every legal aspect is determined by cause, and in this case it does not exist.

European and the world intelligence is fast asleep and lethargic in it's own satisfaction. Morally invisible, it sleeps and dreams it's selfrighteous and larpurlartistic dreams on sofas of modern rulers of the world that enters it's third millenium - allowing, like an ostrich with his head stuck in the sand, contemporary violence which does not have it's interests in law or humanity, but in apsolute power to opress anyone who is against Orwell's "Big Brother". In this new "law" everything is concentrated in one entity- NATO PACT is the maker of the law, the judge and the executioner.

All the forces of the opposition in Serbia have been destroyed with first bombs, and democracy in Serbia today is a story for little children. Those are the legal concequences of NATO agression.

Dr Zoran Ristic
Lawyer
Novi Sad

"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

And now back to personal problems. I was without power for ten hours now. Jamie [Shea] was right: THEY can switch us off whenever they "need to or want to". So, I was "off" for 12 hours (not that they needed to, they just wanted to), and now my server is off, so this letter will reach you – I don't know when. While I was writing, I got off again. So, I will have to wait until we are all "all clear" and connected.

Slobodanka Nedovic
Professor
Faculty of Law
University of Belgrade

We are not paid or hired for doing this. At least, I am not. I am paying for my electricity, phone and Internet time myself. I am stealing from my lifetime (which is maybe running out), maybe for selfish reasons. Maybe because I want to press the chip of collective memory, humanity and compassion in the big planetary computer.

So please, dear friends who share our daily pains and hopes, respect the time we are dedicating to you as to a beloved audience. Please do not expect us to write lengthy letters, endless masochistic reflections or news bulletins. If you are reading our diaries just to feed on the spectacle of human suffering, stop reading them. If you expect us to be your private reporter, forget about us. We are not journalists, we are desperate survivalists who try to pluck our own lust for life out of this misery. And we are here for YOU - not to compensate for the missing spectacle, inspiration and excitement, but to be your friends. To give and take, not to demand, impose, pester...just to give and take love and understanding.

"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

One day they are saying peace is close, but another day saying we are re still long way from peace. People are dieing, children are not going to school. WE have lost to much, dont make us lose more. These money that America have spend in bombing Yugoslavia why didn't they give all that money to the people that are truing to faind cure for aids? Why didn't they triad to protect osone? They didn't do that. All that they are doing now is that they are destroying our planet, they are killing us all.

I am to small to do anything, but you in America can stop bombing here, try to stop bombs here because we will have much bigger problem in future we will lose plant Earth! Do you understand me? Than it will not be important if you are black of white because we will all be dead.

Yesterday in the bus I have heard to man talking. They were talking about cigarettes, and how it is heard to find some these day here. As you know if you do not smoke you are going to live longer, but how can [say] now to any smoker here in Yugoslavia that he will live longer when the bombs are falling on his head.

I really dont know what to say anymore, except WAKE UP AMERICA!

[name withheld]
law student
Belgrade

Dr. Sima Avramovic
School of Law
University of Belgrade

1. Milosevic will stay in power, that could lead us to some kind of a "witch hunt" of all his opponents, and will certainly result in some new conflicts, poverty and disasters. Then, eventually, some new elections will come, under the UN (or other foreign) control, and he won't be able to fake them, so he won't be elected again.

2. Somehow he'll be gone soon (scary thing is that it doesn't have to be a freewill resignation, or a peaceful change), and we will have to face the ruined country and desperate state of everything and everybody. In any case this country will need people educated for dealing, especially in the legal area, with the new system of values and state organization..., with the real separation of the legal and executive power, with all the revenge feelings and all kind of aggressive feelings that unfortunately exist in our nation, as the consequence of all these years.

That's why I think that any form of possibilities for education on how to act in peace (!!?), will be more than welcomed for all younger lawyers who would like to come back to serve. We all grew in a diffrent system and I'm not sure that we are fully prepared for democratic changes, many of my colleagues still thinks that the only purpose of the law is to back up the Government. So, the education is my suggestion.

[name withheld]
Lawyer,
Belgrade

The most frequent explanation is that they were told that everybody who leaves the building during "work obligations in the state of war " would be court martialed and tried. Some others are that they were told they will loose their jobs, or that they will be informed in time to leave the building, (this promise might have been trusted since the media staff working at the Usce business center were not in the building at the time of the attack.) There are also rumors that that night, and on a few previous nights, the night shift was reserved for young people and that none of the "important people" stayed in the building after the night alarms or, even worse, that a few of them left the building 10 minutes before the attack.

The fact is that the people who died, or were wounded were young and were not the "decision makers. " The fact is that the whole town knew that the RTS building was going to be bombed. The fact is that all the foreign journalists received orders not to go to the TV station after the night alarm and that they relayed that message to RTS. The fact is that in all the foreign media, NATO spokesmen announced their intention to bomb RTS, and proclaimed RTS as a "legitimate target." The fact is that none of the "important people" were at RTS at the moment of the attack. The fact is that NATO did what it said it would do despite all those people they certainly were aware of, and therefore they intentionally killed civilians working at that moment. But the missing clue is why those people were not moved to another studio, why were they in that building, waiting for missiles that Western democracy had devoted to them "in good faith" (J.Shea)?!

I strongly hope that people who ordered that useless and cruel bombing will be taken to court one day in the future. And I hope the same thing for everybody who was, in any way, responsible for the fact that those people were in that building on the night of the attack. On different levels they share the guilt for the deaths of innocent people.

And this is the main question that I have for the world legal community: Will all the crimes be treated like crimes? Will the criminals and the killers be called the criminals and the killers, no matter which side they belong to? And will the victims be called the victims, no matter which nation they belong to? Or will this wicked game be continued - victims on one side, collateral damage on the other; 45 ethic Albanians killed in Racak is a massacre, but 75 of them killed in a refugee convoy is a mistake? The Serbian people called barbarians and killers and the Serbian country destroyed, while the Serbian authorities, who were supported till yesterday, and for whom these attacks are still providing the powerful weapon for doing whatever they want, go unpunished. Violation of Albanian civilians is a crime and a humanitarian catastrophe, but the violation of Serbian civilians is their deserved destiny? Will the legal community allow some powers to arrogate God's attributes, and stay untouchable for human laws? Or is there any chance that crimes will be judged upon the evidence and punishments will go to those who committed them?

[name withheld]
Lawyer
Belgrade

I woke up at four thirty (at home and WITHOUT my gym shoes on, which signals that even I can show symptoms of bravery at times :)) and heard strange noises. A series of flashes coloured the sky yellow. I blinked and blinked, but no blast resounded. Faraway brawling could be heard. NATO planes? Most likely. So I decided to go to the shelter. At the entrance of the building, there was a family from the neighbourhood, a couple with two sons, all pricking up their ears. 'Kids heard planes and urged us to descend' the wife said. I peeked outside and felt the rain pouring down. The air smelled fresh. Oh, how fresh! It felt as if somebody scented the atmosphere. Pilots sprinkling their aftershave? Not likely.

And the mystery was solved, the fear dispelled - these were not planes, just ordinary thunder. And no blasts, just ordinary lightnings. I panicked without reason. but to tell the truth, thunder was perfect in impersonating planes....

"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

And, after all those "errors" (is it possible to make mistakes almost every day now) comes our common problem of electrical power. Usual comment here was that NATO used technology of 21st century to drive us back to the 18th. It was quite unpleasant night, as in lots of part of the town the water was also missing. So, you can imagine life without water and electricity. But, the morning reaction of some friends of mine was incredible - a few of them remembered the New York electricity power collapse some years ago and comment that in nine months we could expect a higher birth rate in Serbia: another proof that Mrs. Albright really loves Serbs, as she stresses so often.

Of course, an explanation that the use of the new weapon was directed against military equipement primaraly and not against civilians is so ridiculous and hypocritical. But, we are almost used to hear explanations of that kind by J. Shea - only the question remains can an ordinary man at the West swallow those stupidities?

Dr. Sima Avramovic
School of Law
University of Belgrade

The first blast found me at home. I saw the bright yellow light instantly spread over the sky and instinctively squinted. Some ten seconds later, the walls shook violently. I ran down to the shelter, digging my pockets in search of my small lamp, and the second blast found me there. The walls shook and doors squeaked.

When I came back to the flat, reluctanly, I could not fight sleep. So I fell asleep on the mattress, with my gym shoes on and with the lamp in my hand. The ray of light at hand - just in case.

"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

And here it is - the world unplugged. Last night around ten Serbia fell into pitch-darkness. Feeling our way through the shelter, we remained in the dark about the cause of the power breakdown for hours. All radio stations went off the air at once.

The morning light revealed endless bread-lines, silent sirens, the thick black smoke coming from the refinery (bombed for the 11th time last night). Air smelled of gasoline. People walked dizzily, unsure on their feet. In spite of all, we were having a sunny and clear sunny day, with temp rising up to 26 degree celsius. Life goes on, with candles and matches in our pockets, an unplugged life.

* * *

To say that power comes back intermittently is an almost NATOesque euphemism. Since last night we were 'plugged in' for an hour or two in the early morning and forty minute in the afternoon. I had enough time to check my mail, but not enough to send few hasty responds. Messages coming from my unplugged Belgrade friends are amazingly normal. They tell of broken phone-lines and water-pipes in such a matter-of-factly manner.

* * *

I am having my coffee black and cold.
I am rediscovering my typewriter.

"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

[name withheld]
law student
Belgrade Law Faculty

I heard this news for the first time on the BBC World. They played the shot of the burnt remnants for several minutes, and I wondered: just how disastrous this attack really was, if the BBC dedicated to it a considerable portion of time which is otherwise generously donated to the daily routine of Kosovo refugees?

The night before last, when SKY reported the nail bombing of the 'Admiral Duncan' pub in Soho, my heart sank. I sent an email to my London friend whose husband works in Soho. Thanks God, both of them were OK. Still, I felt bad for all those dead and injured people in the packed pub. not only because I know very well now what it is like to be bombed out of the blue, but also because I strongly disapprove of homophobia and all monstrous practices stemming out of it. All that big talk of human rights everywhere, and suddenly you die because some guys hate gays' guts. For one thing, I, a heterosexual woman, could have been having my pint of beer in that pub - I like going to gay pubs. I could've, if I were in London. But i'm not, I'm denied it by the EC. Never mind, better times will come.

But I just want to put one question: does the world really care about human rights? About the right to be a homosexual, a heterosexual, an afroamerican, a woman? A serb?

Let's leave Serbs aside for a bit. What about Albanians? And what about their women? Where were all those people who are shedding crocodile tears over poor Albanian refugees all these years to see how Albanian women are treated? Where was the world all those decades in which Albanian women were forbidden (as they are still) to go to school, to witness them locked in their homes behind walls 5 feet high, married early and ordered to give birth to one child per year? Talibans in afganistan have similar ways of treating their women, but they are still in power and nobody strikes them out of the blue. So, what about the civil and human rights of Kosovo Albanian women? Do not think Serb authorities denied education and contraception to them. Their husbands, fathers and brothers did it, an oppressive heritage did it. These women, denied profession and contraception, live in dark ages, in the world of a primitive culture which still feeds on the blood feud tradition.

So, if anybody really wanted to help Kosovo Albanians, the help should have started with these small essentials such as primers & condoms, not with offering a territory.

* * *

Yeah, and I forgot another essential human right - the right to breathe. The last night's jubilee, the tenth bombing of Novi Sad refinery, resulted in the thickest clouds ever. My windows are shut, and the day promises to offer a temperature of 30 C and no wind, so the environmental situation goes worse. I think this was hardest attack on Novi Sad ever. At least shaking of the walls said so.

* * *

US servicemen released. Will Yugoslavia be released?

"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

Your president declared yesterday that so far the bombardment was hampered by bad weather. But in May, the weather is much better than in April, and in June it is better than in May, and in July even better, and so on, until we are all sent to heaven. I begin to understand why this aggression is called the Merciful angel - probably the aim is that we all become angels. There are many that already arrived there in the shortest possible way - these are the children. According to my knowledge of the Christian science, the children, being beautiful and innocent, become angels easily and swiftly. Can you imagine the sight of that three-year-old girl that flew to heavens sitting on her potty to join the angels. For me, this is too hard even to imagine.

In my opinion, it is high time that the lawyers of the countries that are killing a people occupy themselves with the legal basis of this war in their own countries, within then own legal systems (it should have been done from the very beginning). They should ask themselves what legal, human or divine norms is this action based on. The voice of the people who could give their professional and human opinion on this issue should be heard.

Professor Ljubomirka Krkljus, Ph.D.
Dean
University of Novi Sad School of Law

Slobodanka Nedovic
Professor
Faculty of Law
University of Belgrade

"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad

Another terrible event is bombing of small town of Surdulica, where they found in houses up to this morning 16 killed people, 12 of them children (5-12 years old). A genius named J.Shea (we call him here J. Shame or J. She) said that it was again a mistake! This morning when I left my flat a terrible smell of oil was all around the area, as they hit refinery in Pancevo again (on the other side of Danube) and there were almost no wind today to help moving the smoke cloud. The only encouraging thing are some signs that maybe political solution could be achieved (although Mr. Draskovic was removed yesterday- all this adventure is not very clear to me).

Dr. Sima Avramovic
School of Law
University of Belgrade

Another thing is: it is so annoying to see how the poor victims are treated. I have grown tired of euphemisms designed to hide the truth, designed to justify the crime. An error made by a bomb-supplied pilot cannot be said to be unintended. We never intend to be wrong, but we tend to be more or less fatally careless. A bomb cannot just go astray, since it does not 'go' at all. It is not a cat, is it? It is a killing