Back to the Future: Milosevic Prepares For Life After Kosovo (28 June 1999)

Contents

• Executive Summary

• Introduction: 610 Years of Kosovo Polje

• Background

• In the Hands of an Indicted War Criminal

• The Political Elements

• The Russians Build a New Berlin Wall?

• "In the Hands of all Yugoslav Citizens"

• The Conjugal Dictatorship

• Contrasting Views

• Back to the Future

• More Questions

• Recommendations
  1. Support Democratic Alternatives In The Milosevic Regime
  2. Promote Alternative Media
  3. Resist Russian Pressure To Carve Out A De Facto Zone Of Occupation
  4. Support & Defend Djukanovic Government In Montenegro

• Annex 1: Excerpts from the Diaries

• Annex 2: Images

Inside Serbia, censorship remains tight.⁶⁹ On 24 June 1999 the federal parliament, following a debate not broadcast to the Serbian public, passed a resolution lifting the state of war. Debate will likely continue over the coming weeks as to how much of the war-time legislation will be repealed,⁷⁰ including harsh measures⁷¹ that have effectively muzzled all media.

For the foreseeable future, the average television viewer, particularly outside Belgrade, is unlikely to encounter unbiased news coverage. Instead, headlines such as "Thanks to Serbian Soldiers"⁷² and images of stalwart and heroic Serb fighters have received and continue to get all the media attention. An illustrative case is the account of one Mehmet Haljimi, a 58-year-old Albanian who was "forcibly mobilised by the KLA" because "there were no other males in his household." Haljimi was detained by Serb forces, but released on the condition that he could return and hand over at least "five members of the KLA willing to surrender." Eventually, Haljimi allegedly returned to the rendezvous point, but in tow were "terrorists" who "opened fire" on Serb forces. The "terrorists" were neutralised, and Haljimis's family, his wife and daughters, were also detained. According to the account, Haljimi's wife gave "thanks to the Serbian soldiers. Two nights and one day they kept us in a room. They brought us food and water. They didn't touch us in any way, and they didn't ask any intimate questions. I was terrified for my three daughters, but nobody laid a hand on them."⁷³

When covering the broader issue of the peace plan, the media continue to focus on the alleged victimisation of the Serbian people, either at the hands of KLA terrorists returning to Kosovo or at the hands of hostile NATO forces. A recent story, "A Peace Full of Unrest [Mir pun nemira]" highlights alleged KLA atrocities.⁷⁴ Thus, while the state press addresses the issue of peace, its presentation is invariably in the context of the reasonable and reasoned desire of the governing authorities to secure an end to hostilities. Headlines such as "Yugoslavia Accepts Peace" and "Confirmed the Territorial Integrity and Sovereignty of the Land" extol the righteousness of the FRY and Serbian governments,⁷⁵ while commentaries buttressed by such headlines as, "The Yugoslav Government Always Wanted a Peaceful Resolution" claim to reveal the immutable intentions of the Belgrade authorities.⁷⁶ Mention of NATO invariably leads to discussion of the Western source of all aggression and hostilities, as indicated by such banners as, "�NATO Kills Children: Milica Rakic Was Killed by Madeleine Albright" and "NATO Aggression Against Yugoslavia�the Moral Decline of the West." Western self-criticism continues to be a prized commodity for the Belgrade propaganda mill. Prominent coverage of reports such as, "British Committee for Peace in the Balkans: NATO Terror in Yugoslavia" enables the regime to demonstrate to its captive population that it is not alone in condemning the Western alliance as "brutally terrorising the civilian population of Yugoslavia with its strategy," as the British Committee's president is quoted as saying.⁷⁷

The anti-NATO rhetoric did not disappear with the peace accord. In recent days, wide coverage was given to purportedly disillusioned NATO military officers such as Captain Adolfo Luis Martin de la Oz, a Spanish NATO pilot, who disapprovingly alleged that the U.S. had planned every stage and strike of the bombing campaign, including the decision to order cluster bomb attacks on civilian targets in Pristina and Nis.⁷⁸

The propaganda campaign accompanying the war in Kosovo, like the ethnic cleansing campaign itself, was premeditated and carried out according to plan. During the March meetings in Paris, where the Serbian and Kosovar delegations convened ostensibly to conclude a peace deal, it quickly became evident that the Belgrade authorities were in no way sincere about reaching an agreement. Instead, they adopted a "third path," a phrase familiar to everyone who lived through WW2. This was the strategy of Ni rat ni pakt [neither war nor peace], first coined in 1941, when acting Yugoslav Prime Minister Gen. Dusan Simovic, head of the briefly reigning military junta, responded to Axis ultimatums by saying that while Yugoslavia would not agree to terms, nor would it wage war. At Rambouillet, by rejecting the peace plan and opting to endorse a Belgrade-prepared document that was not on the table, contemporary FRY and Serbian leaders invoked their own version of this historic ploy.

Not completely incidentally, the date of Belgrade's recent opting for a "third path" nearly overlapped with the earlier instance: in 1941, Gen. Simovic's declaration of neutrality took place on 27 March, and on 6 April the Nazis attacked. In 1999, the Rambouillet talks collapsed on March 19, and NATO's first air strikes began on 24 March, after Milosevic again rejected a solution imposed by the allies. This confluence of dates and the invocation of a familiar strategy were exploited by the Belgrade regime to paint the NATO allies as Nazis. Television newscasts and newspapers were soon filled with references to Hitler-Clinton,⁷⁹ and Studio B TV was notorious for featuring graphics linking the NATO action to Nazi atrocities. One infamous ad showed NATO aircraft flying in a swastika formation, with the caption, Mi ne zaboravljamo [We Don't Forget]. In the first few days and weeks of the war, partisan films, both fictional and documentary, featured the heroic Yugoslav resistance to invading Fascist forces, thereby feeding the contemporary Belgrade audience hard-to-miss parallels to the current situation.⁸⁰

Sacred holidays such as Orthodox Easter also were not exempted from the NATO campaign, providing Belgrade with yet another propaganda windfall. Following the Easter weekend, on Monday, 12 April 1999, one Belgrade daily reported that "The Aggressor Didn't Spare our Country Even on the Greatest Orthodox Holiday: Targeted on Easter."⁸¹ Some political parties even used the occasion to send a very pointed message. The New Democracy (ND) party placed ads during the Easter weekend that featured just a painted Easter egg captioned with the phrase, "They believe in BOMBS, We believe in GOD."⁸² The message, "Nothing is sacred to them" was repeated extensively during the period.⁸³

Given the propaganda push during the early part of the NATO action, it is tempting to speculate that the intent was to instill in Serbs an attitude towards NATO countries usually reserved for the mythos of the Ottoman invaders (responsible for the Serbs' glorious defeat in the legendary 1389 Battle of Kosovo Polje) and for Hitler's Nazis.⁸⁴ Only decades will tell whether the date 24 March 1999 enters the Serbian popular lexicon as a term equal to, if not synonymous with, 1389.

While Second World War imagery was pirated to tap into a more senior demographic, it was clear that rock and folk music were marshalled to appeal to Serbian youth. The catchy recruiting jingle beginning with Sa nama si sigurna�became ubiquitous within hours of the first NATO bombs falling. But the links the regime had established with popular culture had deep and intimate roots. Milosevic is in a unique position to understand how popular culture impacts on Serbian youth because his daughter is proprietor of Kosava TV, which specialises in trendy pop videos and Pero Ojdanic, a close relative of the Head of the Army, regularly appears in pop music ads aired on Pink TV.⁸⁵

Daily concerts, taking place first in the Belgrade main square and then moving to include vigils on municipal bridges, served to mobilise youth opinion against NATO.⁸⁶ Vuk Draskovic's Studio B TV promulgated symbols appealing to the young. The image of the target displayed at rock concerts, suspicious in its resemblance to the Studio B logo, adorned T-shirts worn by young people and became ubiquitous.⁸⁷ Mira Markovic's daily, Borba, even began to display the target insignia on the front page.⁸⁸ TV stations used it as a graphic, while news anchors sported the image of the target over their hearts. The term otpor,⁸⁹ initially used by the pro-democracy student movement, was also appropriated by the regime dailies to evince support for youth anti-NATO rallies and concerts.⁹⁰ One notable broadcaster opting to buck the target craze was TV Palma, where a station representative insisted, "We [Serbian people] are not to be used as a target." Instead, TV Palma adopted an ancient cross symbol, claiming it to be among "the oldest in Christendom" and because "it is a symbol of otpor, a symbol of resistance."⁹¹

A forthcoming ICG report will focus on themes broached in this work. That analysis, tentatively titled, Milosevic: How I Did It, will explain how the FRY dictator has managed to consolidate his grip on power since the NATO action and how he has weathered the storm of remaining a head of state following indictment on charges of crimes against humanity. While the international community may become complacent following its recent military victory against the FRY, from the vantage point of Belgrade, the issue of Kosovo's status remains wide open. The recent push to enforce the return of fleeing Serbs to the province may provide the regime with the rationalization for asserting future control of the province,⁹² or at the very least to argue for partition, should relations between Kosovar Albanians and Serbs flounder and give way to renewed tensions. In any event, the constitutional status of the province will be called into question in the coming months.⁹³ The matter of how Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) may be reintegrated into the political scene, likely in the service of Milosevic's government, will be taken up.

Perhaps most importantly, the issue of Montenegro's role in the FRY will also be addressed.⁹⁴ Last time Milosevic purged his military, it was in order to carry out Operation Horseshoe and the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo. The announcement that Interior Ministry forces may be shifted to military service in the guise of the VJ may spell trouble for Montenegro and may suggest that Milosevic is already planning for a showdown with Djukanovic.⁹⁵ The Montenegrin president was vilified at the war's outset; when he failed to follow Milosevic's lead in severing relations with Germany, France, the UK and the USA, the Belgrade media's hate-mongering only intensified, and accusations of treason continue.⁹⁶ Seselj recently said that, "The Western forces have a serious ally in the Montenegrin government when it comes to�secession. The majority [of Montenegrins] is against it, but, on the other hand, we know from personal experience how a referendum is organised, the opposition has no control over the referendum. In case the referendum is organised, the result will be the one determined by the regime in Montenegro."⁹⁷

Support democratic alternatives in the Milosevic regime

Excerpts from the Diaries

23 March 1999. We drove to get gas today. Car's in bad shape. Little gasoline, and oil almost gone. What struck me was how many petrol stations we had to visit before we got what we needed. Most had line-ups around the block while a good percentage had sold-out their stock by the time we got there. Even policemen are lining up for it (thought they had their own private supplies). Couldn't resist asking one officer what was causing the queues. "War's coming". We arrived home just before dinner, giving me enough time for some shopping. I noticed a few things are starting to disappear. Milk and bread running low. Tough to say whether most people think the war's coming, but a lot seem to think so.

Too much work today. No sleep last night and too much running around. Sitting now watching television. Everybody gone to dinner and I'll join them in about half an hour. The debate about what to do if the bombs start to fall now being televised and is well under way. The legislature is defiant. Seselj is now speaking. An interesting character. Even ----who says he can't stand Seselj says he enjoys his speeches. Not hard to do, even if you're even only a mild nationalist. Seselj's style is part theatre, part rhetoric, part almost comedy, but mostly politics. Frankly, it would be entertaining if it weren't so dangerous and poisonous. It's classic populist charisma, and it does go a long way. I've noticed the difference between Vojislav's [Seselj's] charisma and that of his arch-rival and relative, Vuk Draskovic. Seselj is almost a hick, pandering to the lowest common denominator and making it feel good about itself. Draskovic on the other hand, is an ideologue and a demagogue. His speeches are more like sermons, and when he's not ranting, the text is delivered in language that is much more formal. Draskovic can also drip charisma like beads of sweat, but he never struck me as the kind of politician who might spend all night drinking at the local. He'd be more comfortable with a sermon on the mount. Seselj is very down to earth, someone I suspect lives in the cafes and enjoys the company of a select few drinking buddies.

24 March 1999. It does look like we're at the point of no return. Some media are reporting what to do in case of air raid sirens. I should be able to tell the difference between the air raid and the all clear signal. No problem. What's this thing about chemicals, though? Are the authorities trying to tell us they have toxic chemicals or chemical weapons in or around Belgrade? I hope it's only a caution in case something like pollution resulting from an oil storage facility being hit. Anyway, looks like the regime is preparing for a showdown. Nothing like a general mobilisation, but preparations to resist something underway.

Heard that planes left Britain this morning. Seems they're headed for Italy. Definitely something likely to happen. Regime went overboard (nothing new there!). - called to let me know chief editor of independent Radio B92 arrested, but I already knew that. That was the first thing I heard when I got up this morning. I knew Veran Matic had been caught, but knew nothing about the circumstances under which it had happened. The details of the arrest apparently remain unknown. All sorts of rumours seem to be flying. One account says he was roughed up pretty seriously. Another said they were about to throw him behind bars with some of the worst criminal types-assassins, murders. Nothing like the Belgrade rumour mill (unfortunately, a lot of times turns out to be not so far from the truth). Evidently some lawyers have tried to contact Matic, but so far, even they don't know where he's being held. Some government ministers are jumping out of their shorts over the ecstasy the Matic arrest seems to be causing. At least one, says, remarked "at last, we've succeeded in silencing B 92".

Took a long walk around the city this afternoon, and didn't see anything that could make me suspect anti-aircraft artillery in or near the city centre. I hope that's the case. If it is, it's a good sign. Should mean we won't get too many bombs falling in Belgrade.

25 March 1999. Took a long walk around town. Noticed that shops were crowded. That was something you really can't help but notice, since most of the time most people can't afford to do much shopping. I think we can expect shortages of basic foodstuffs. I was out early, just after 0900 but almost every bakery I passed was closed. At first I thought they hadn't opened, but asked one lady waiting outside one shop when they'd opened, and she said they'd already closed. She was told by one of the clerks that more bread might come and so she was waiting for the next fifteen minutes, just in case. This was the same story everywhere. No bread, and I notice the shops are out of milk and cheese. Supermarkets are still open and quite well stocked, but the basics are lacking. Think it's best to buy up on flour and sugar now, while that's still available. A lot of canned goods are still around, likely because they're too expensive.

Air raid sirens last night caused some panic. There I was in -----park, and noticed some people running for the trees for cover. I don't think that was such a great idea, but who knows. If I happen to be outside during the air raids, I'll make a point of noting public reaction. I bring this up now because I remember the woman in a grocery store this morning when a car backed up. She dropped a jar of something and started yelling about where the bomb shelter was. Situation appears to be taking a toll on the elderly. The young don't really seem to mind. A few teenagers in the building across the street raced up to the roof last night during the air raid warnings to see if they could see a NATO plane and maybe get a few souvenir photos. I'm thinking it'll be a few days before anybody drops anything on Belgrade.

1900hrs. (or there about). I think this is scary. I just got back from trying to meet with any party official who would care to say anything. Looks like they're saving themselves for press conferences. No problems. On the way back came across two young men at the bus stop. Don't know how old they were, but looked like they were in their late teens, maybe 20-21. Cropped hair, a sign that they were with Zeljko Raznatovic's [alias Arkan's] paramilitary Tigers. One was complaining to the other that he couldn't get to Kosovo yet along with somebody he knew, who was evidently part of the shock troops and paramilitaries heading south to kill Albanians or burn down their villages. Should be noted that since the 24th there's been a lot of talk about a ground war and needing to defend Kosovo. So far nobody seems to have done the math. How do you defend Kosovo against the NATO enemy? The planes are up there, at least some thousands of meters out of range. So if you were thinking and reflecting I suppose you could come to the conclusion that all that talk on the state media about "defending Kosovo" was just code for "ethnic cleansing".

26 March 1999. We just don't get much news from the outside. Under a blanket of censorship, so the local media are faithful to the government line. The regime has declared the country to be in a state of war. I haven't heard anything from the opposition. Where is the anti-regime feeling? Lots of people who say they can't stand Milosevic now seem to be quiet. Is everybody supporting the war? Where are the students? Where's otpor? Not a word. Talked to ---- about this before I met with----. She says it's all normal. The quiet is because this NATO bombing won't last but a few more days, she says. -----agrees. He says he can "feel it". Years ago when war broke out "against the Ustasa [Croatia]" he said you just knew there was going to be a draft and that it was likely a lot of people would die. He says he's trusting his instincts, and that because he doesn't have "that feeling" it's safe to assume that things will calm down within a few days, a week maybe, and that "the war will just go away".

----ran into me downtown. He was acting like he'd seen the second coming, but that wasn't it. He said Seselj was out on the streets, looking like he was making the rounds and trying to bolster public support for the war. Some of Seselj's youth supporters said NATO was "going to smash its teeth on Yugoslavia". Looks like some people are serious about thinking they can win. Well, by win they mean that FRY won't surrender. ----said his entire family was prepared to stand and fight NATO troops if they entered the country. Also said his cousins in Montenegro had gone into the cellar and collected up their guns, planning to resist. Even a rumour that some of his Montenegrin relatives had already fled to the hills, where they allegedly plan to stay until the NATO troops show up.

I don't know what information people are getting outside of the FRY, but the news here is that NATO is committing all sorts of atrocities. [deputy premier and leader of Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) Vuk] Draskovic has gone public with a statement that NATO has committed a "Hiroshima of atrocities" against the Serbian people. Seems like he's the golden boy on the international media stage. He's getting a lot of play on what looks to be CNN and BBC. Every time a local politician makes an appearance on those stations it gets wide coverage, but at the same time the authorities here keep telling us government officials and the official FRY stand on the war isn't getting any coverage in the international press. If Larry King doesn't play outside FRY and depends only on Belgrade for ratings, he must be in deep trouble. Draskovic says that NATO is responsible for war crimes and when asked about atrocities against the Albanian people he just contorts the issue and tells the interviewer that if he wants to be balanced and objective, he needs to refocus on Albanian atrocities committed against ethnic Serbs. I wish we had information about what was happening in the south, but I'm guessing that right now it must be a terrible time to be an Albanian in Kosovo.

Youth continue to surprise me. Saw whole groups heading towards the recruiters office. There's no shortage of warm bodies who seem to actually want be shipped off to Kosovo. Approached one of the recruiting officers who thought I wanted to go. Before I said anything, he just told me there were too many volunteers to process, and that I shouldn't even bother to come back for at least a few days. Maybe this enthusiasm for the war is just somehow natural at this early stage.

1 April 1999. The most remarkable thing about today was the civics lesson I had. I didn't plan it, I didn't expect it, it just happened. Spent most of the day in meetings with pompous political types. Had and still have the feeling I got absolutely nowhere. Either nobody knows how bad things are for the Kosovars, or they're not saying. I frankly think most people just don't know. If all they have is state television, there's no way they'll ever know and I'll never get an answer. RTS has taken over all the news. Well, there's still the separate broadcasts on BK TV, Politika, and Studio B, but they are all either shaping the government line or faithfully broadcasting. Even Kosava TV doesn't run those stupid pop and rock videos. Partly I know because those videos come from the hated NATO countries, and Western culture is no longer in favour. I would frankly enjoy those for a half hour of the mindless pop junk when I got up in the morning, if the only choice is state news or the latest teenager labouring to have his voice crack in mid-recital. Kosava's reserved now for RTS news or cultural music videos and performances. Back to the civics lesson. ---- had been complaining for over six months that Albanians in FRY have no rights. About three days before the NATO action started we went for a walk to meet ---- and started talking about how bad the situation was for Albanians. His complaint then was that most Serbs didn't understand that if you double the standard of living for the average Kosovar Albanian, the same thing would automatically happen for every Serb all across the country. Now things have changed, since the bombing. He still says he has nothing against Albanians, it's just that they can't be trusted to control Kosovo. The problem is the Serb holy places, ----says. If the Serbs and Serb authorities are removed from Kosovo for all times, the first thing that the Albanians would do is burn down all the monasteries and throw the stones, ashes, and every shred of every other construction material into the Adriatic. It's apparently not that Albanians as individuals are bad. In fact, -----says the average Albanian individual is "better than we average Serbs". The problem is that you can't trust them as a group. He insisted that while Serbian culture may be backward and primitive, it does represent at the very least one giant step forward, from the Albanian culture. He claims it's hard for him to say, but it's necessary that Serbia retain control of the province, and at all costs if need be. Albanians may live there, but they can't govern. They may be allowed to share some power, but it would always have to be a minority share. I didn't ask anything about region's history or the KLA, but that was volunteered. -----Said that the KLA is now made up in large part by the Albanian descendants of those "fascists" who settled the province after the Second World War. He said Tito and communism were to blame. It was, he alleged, Tito's grand strategy to limit the political influence of Serbs in Yugoslavia as a whole. Kosovo was a very strategic part of the grand plan: resettle Albanians in the region, and drive out the Serbs. Limit the Serbs geographically, and you restrict them politically. He stressed this was a dark chapter in Yugoslavia's history and that few people liked to talk about it openly, especially those who either were communists or sympathised with Tito. Those Serbs were driven out of Kosovo and now their children and grandchildren lived in Vojvodina. When I attempted to make a counter argument, saying that in the wake of WWII most Serbs gladly left impoverished Kosovo for the wealth and mineral-rich farmland of Vojvodina, voluntarily giving up their stake in Kosovo, the consolation prize that went to some dispossessed and displaced Albanians, I was told I didn't need to make deliberate provocations. We did turn to current events. -----said KLA terrorists were attacking forces in Kosovo. I didn't even want to entertain a discussion about ethnic cleansing.

3 April 1999. Well, we're still refusing to head into the air raid shelters. There's little space in the basements, and we think it's probably best that it be reserved for the elderly. A lot of people seem to seriously be entertaining the belief that NATO is going to just dump bombs over Belgrade. That's patently absurd, but a lot of people just don't understand that NATO isn't out to target civilians. Unfortunately, this belief is playing right into Milosevic's hands. Should it happen that a bomb does go astray and hits a civilian apartment complex, a hospital or a school, I can only recoil when I think how that would be treated by the propaganda machinery.

We spent almost an hour and a half walking around town trying to find a place to have lunch. We couldn't go just anywhere,----- decided. We had to go the city's very best Chinese restaurant, in honour of what the Chinese were doing to support "justice". That is, the lunch was in honour of what the Chinese were doing to back Belgrade vis-�-vis NATO. The pro-Chinese feeling is amazing. No jokes about the Chinese allowed or tolerated, and nothing bad could be said about their government. When I reminded -----, who is the staunchest anti-Communist in FRY, that Beijing still has a Marxist government, he pointed out it was the "good kind of communism". He explained that any regime that was capable of seeing the justice in the Serbian cause was surely able to reform communism. I really couldn't believe how many people seem to seriously believe that the Russians are pushing the political and diplomatic envelope so far that we're actually on the verge of a nuclear war. I've been bothering everybody who tells me this to explain just how it could be in Russia's interest to go war for Serbia, and all I get is the predictable explanation that it's a question of pride in defending a fellow Orthodox nation. Maybe I'm stupid, but I'm still labouring under the impression that Russia can tell the difference between pride and national great power interests, and that in this equation at this moment there just doesn't appear to me to be any overlap.

4 April 1999. I have to get this down right now or I may forget it. It seems to be about 0430hrs. in the morning. I just looked over at the clock on the dresser and it has stopped. I think it may have been the blast. This was the most sensational feeling. Got up because it felt like someone was trying to flip my bed over. More like being thrown out of bed. I also heard a deafening blast, and I don't know whether I was thrown from the bed or whether my instincts just told me to jump under the table. The bed has certainly moved some half meter or so. It was a loud blast, followed by the sky turning bright red, blood red. Sound waves against the one closed window make the glass look like a waterfall. If I get the chance and as soon as that stops I'll open that window too. I don't know why I left it open. It seems everybody else in the neighbourhood is up now. Dogs racing around in the street. It's non-stop howling, some barking, mostly howling. I can hear babies crying. Something must have been hit. Did NATO hit a gasoline truck or gas station around the corner? I can't get a good view and I don't think I'll venture outside right now to try and find out. It's very hot outside the window, and am thinking that must be the heat being generated from whatever blew up. I can't smell anything. I can hear some elderly woman calling some people to "get inside". More blasts. I don't know if that was something else that was hit. Sounded a lot like the distant anti-aircraft barrages that have been keeping me up. Have been up most nights, with maybe 3-4 hours sleep. I just managed to get to sleep after midnight, and I think that's all the sleeping for tonight. Another voice coming from the street, telling more people to get inside because "NATO won't stop bombing now". Sounds like an old man's voice coming from the apartment next door, yelling "NATO Nazis are now going after civilians". Same voices over and over again.

Managed to maybe sleep for another hour after that bomb blast. Where did the bomb hit? It is still early in the morning, and there doesn't seem to be anyone on the street to ask. Too tired to concentrate on listening to radio.

It's now noon. Managed to get another hour sleep, and that's what I needed. RTS reported that the refinery in New Belgrade [Novi Beograd] was targeted early this morning. That's only ----kilometres from here. It's close, but the explosion last night made me think something as close as the apartment next door was the bull's eye. Will take a walk over and see the damage.

Unbelievable! A good, clean hit. Officials still on the scene. Seems it wasn't an easy job putting out the blaze. Was over at ----'s place. He was much closer than we were and forgot to open his windows. This is not the time to be forgetting things like that. Several windows shattered because of the blast. Had anyone been standing in the bathroom early in the morning they would have been sliced to pieces. No glass shards hit the floor. They all flew across the room and either embedded in the wall, or hit the wall and then fell to the floor. It's over two meters from the window to the wall.

13 April 1999. I've always wanted to be a film critic. I like movies and what appeals to me more is maybe someday being able to get to watch them and even earn a fee for it. Back to the point: American movies and popular culture are important to the FRY propaganda machine. Just a few short weeks ago when the war erupted, the dictatorship made some noise about banning American entertainment. Almost as quickly, they seemed to back away from the proclamation. It's interesting because even ---, who should know better, took this to mean that Milosevic was actually succumbing to some notion of freedom or liberalism. He actually said "Public pressure seems to be letting Milosevic know he can't keep the people from being exposed to Western entertainment". I think that would be great if it were true. A person really has to be aware of what kind of American movies are not only being tolerated but actually hyped. Okay, early on the point that the movies were themselves American-made anti-American movies wasn't made with too fine a point. The first to get widespread attention on television, and really it seems TV Politika was allowed to be the carrier of the entertainment propaganda, was Wag the Dog. Ideal for propaganda purposes. An American establishment plots a war to salvage a president's political career. Easy to see how the Belgrade regime wanted its population to view themselves as the victims of a manufactured American war. Next came the Oliver Stone films, extolled for their portrayal of American atrocities from Latin America to Vietnam. Even RTS got into the act. Charlie Chaplin's anti-fascist classic The Great Dictator got several showings. That was easy to slot into the propaganda machine - Yugoslavia was now in the midst of an aggression by the Nazi NATO Alliance. Clear message, thank you Mr. Chaplin. What was harder to comprehend were the non-stop Disney features. Then one day it was explained. A Disney documentary broadcast by Politika detailed Mickey Mouse. Back in the 1930s he was used to symbolise the American everyman, whose plight was underscored/ exacerbated by the Great Depression. His, that is Mickey's, stalwart determination in the face of overwhelming odds eventually produced successes for the everyman hero. Mickey, seemingly, was meant to symbolise Serbia, now caught up in its own struggle to overcome incredible odds. Really hard to understand were some features like the classic media expose, Network. Its protagonist, a media phenomenon who anchors a news program and garners ratings by telling viewers they are the manipulated victims of broadcasters and journalists might be dangerous for Politika to show during the height of an intense media campaign directed against the Alliance. Network's message seems universal, and could be applied to many situations/contexts. Couldn't the discriminating viewer apply it to RTS and the rest of the Serbian media right now, and come away with the impression they were perpetuating a big lie vis-�-vis the West? Maybe, but at least - walked away with the intended interpretation. He said: "See, a film like that shows their media are bad, and ours are good". If a lot of people came to that understanding, then the regime's manipulation of propaganda has been subtle and has gone on for some time. I doubt you can attune people to that kind of interpretation overnight and with a sledgehammer approach.

Finally something to watch without having to kick-start any grey matter. James Bond made an appearance. I'd heard Goldfinger had been on. Missed it, but managed to catch Tomorrow Never Dies. For me great escapist stuff. Everybody else loved it, too. I couldn't resist, so had to ask about the appeal. Couldn't resist baiting at first. I started by telling --- he ought to hate the film, reminding him he'd got all worked up about FRY being at war with the U.K. Bond's a British hero, and as such, wasn't he worth loathing? Girlfriend - had to set me straight. First of all the villain, exceptionally well played, was an American-type media tycoon who uses the news and information services at his disposal to fabricate a war. That part was obvious, and all the implications surely not lost on any Serb viewer. But the film also featured Pierce Brosnan who is evidently "No Sean Connery". Brosnan has "a slight appearance�It's kind of like a metaphor for the decay of Britain. Look, this Bond can't even fight his own battles. And this time around, his ally is a Chinese agent [Michelle Yeoh]. Well, the Chinese are on our side in this real war."

I found that anything viewed through a Serbian prism may become a unique vision. I think it was on Palma, anyway, late one night Dumb and Dumber came on. Watched [again, in my case] and enjoyed it all over again. Absolutely amazed to hear ----- say that while he understood it was all exaggerated and intended as a broad comedy, he understood that the protagonists represented real social types. "Well sure it's acted for laughs, but those guys Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels do stand for a certain kind of homo Americanus. They probably are close to the majority of the American population; uninformed and stupid. It's the same way here in Serbia. A lot of films portray hicks and peasants to get laughs. I wish it weren't so, but you have to say that a lot of our people are really hicks and villagers. That's why that kind of film goes over. It's the same story in America."

Button with Welcome to Serbia as expressed by a middle finger.

Greetings from Serbia.

Captioned newspaper photos of Tony Blair, Robin Cook, Madeline Albright and Bill Clinton.

Newspaper headlines.

Nazi Clinton sending in the Missiles.

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