April 19, 1999 - STATEMENT BY THE YUGOSLAV SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
May 28, 1999 - HEALTH FOR ALL POLITICALLY CORRECT ONLY?
May 18, 1999 - COLLATERAL CATASTROPHE OF NATURE?
May 14, 1999 - NEW APPEAL
May 11, 1999 - FAMILIES UNDER BOMBS
May 6, 1999 - CESSATION OF BOMBING, SELF-DETERMINATION
May 2, 1999 - ON DEMOCRACY?
April 29, 1999 - ON BELGRADE
April 23, 1999 - ON BRIDGES
April 9, 1999 - TO THE SOCIOLOGISTS OF EUROPE AND THE WORLD
April 7, 1999 - AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NATO AUTHORITIES AND THEIR
POLITICAL MASTERS
Belgrade
May 28, 1999
HEALTH FOR ALL POLITICALLY CORRECT ONLY?
In this text it is our intention to expose some crucial problems that
the Yugoslav health care services encounter nowadays after the two-month
bombing of our country. The entire population of Yugoslavia and
particularly its most vulnerable part suffer very much for the following
reasons:
1. About 400 health care buildings have been destroyed or damaged (the
so called "collateral damage") so far, thus almost a third of the
population has no access to the local health dispensaries;
2. Destruction of over 50 bridges (some of which were just beautiful
urban oases for strolling, without any motor traffic) and pedantic
destruction of the main (as well as local) roads prevent transportation
of severe and acute patients to more competent institutions;
3. Due to the destruction of the electricity network of Serbia over 80%
of our health care institutions are unable to utilize electric power
(!), and only those that have independent supply (generators) may, at
least from time to time, provide survival to those on respirators, in
incubators, necessitating surgery, etc. Others are doomed to suffer and
die in pain, infection, their own excrement and blood. The same
conditions await 120,000 pregnant women who are due to give birth soon.
4. Out of 1,500 killed civilians about 30% are children, while the ratio
is even worse in 6,000 wounded: about 40% are children. Now, at any
time, due to round the clock air raids over Yugoslavia, at least 5-6
million people are curled up in shelters left to their unreliable
protection. This brings about reach variety of psychiatric nosology that
remains to be manifested in the future among children and their parents;
engrams caused by such horrible conditions are the issue of which we
hardly dare to think;
5. The simplicity of the sign and symbol of the red cross was an easily
recognizable taboo marking a tiny, but still achievable measure of
humanity that has never been questioned and never open to doubt. In
spite of that, in this aggression of NATO forces the taboo has been
broken several times. E.g., on 20 May 1999, at 00:55 a grenade hit
directly a building of the Center of Neurology within a noticeably
marked and detached medical civilian complex of the "Dr Dragisa Misovic"
University Medical Center, damaging the Pediatric Center for Lung
Disorders and Maternity Ward, where four deliveries, two of them
Cesarean sections, were in progress at the time. In addition to others
the following patients were murdered: Radosav Novakovic, suffering from
motor neuron disease, Branka Boskovic, with left-sided paralysis
resulting from stroke, and Zora Brkic, with multiple cerebral
infections. Can you imagine the moment of terror of the three bed-ridden
patients chained in the cage of their own unresponsive bodies and the
surrounding explosions? As we already put it, this was not an
exceptional "collateral damage".
6. What, however, inflicts a sharper pain is the silence of a part of
the civilized world. Or, maybe, that part of the world knows something
that still eludes us: that there is something very dangerous and
subversive in our hospitals?!? That the WHO motto "Health for all" has,
in fact, a hidden meaning of which we are not aware jet, namely, that it
should be understood as: "Health for politically correct only"?
For the sake of humanity we appeal that you raise your voice against the
cynical practice of preventing a humanitarian catastrophe by producing
another one; for the appalling consequences of such a circle might
easily become entirely unpredictable. Who is the next?
Presidency of the Yugoslav Sociological Association
Yugoslav Sociological Association
Studentski trg 1,
11000 Belgrade,
Yugoslavia
Phone: ++381 11 637 115
E-mail: ysa@afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu
ysa@f.bg.ac.yu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please visit our web site http://www.bg.ac.yu/
or our mirror site
http://ubg-mirror.iccs.ntua.gr/
Belgrade
April 19, 1999
STATEMENT BY THE YUGOSLAV SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
On March 24, this year war operations were renewed on the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The armed conflict between the federal army and the KLA in Kosovo, discontinued in October 1998 (although a case-fire has never been signed), picked up to spread beyond the borders of Kosovo under entirely new circumstances. Namely, the war has now been joined by NATO forces, siding with the KLA, and thereby
assumed international proportions. Thus, the ethnic conflict between the Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo, which in different forms and degrees of intensity has persisted throughout the 20th century, passed beyond the point of no return. The only question is whether what lies ahead will be better, or perhaps worse, than what we have had in Kosovo so far.
In order for the entire population of Kosovo and their descendents to live in a more peaceful, happier and prosperous future, we believe that it would be necessary:
– to discontinue war operations as soon as possible;
– to pass an act on general amnesty;
– to create the conditions for the return of displaced persons;
– to ensure free and democratic adoption of new constitutions for the FRY and Serbia, as well as Statute of Kosovo as an autonomous province within Serbia;
– for the FRY to accede to the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to the European Convention on Human Rights.
We are convinced that the fulfillment of these five points would accomplish the following objectives:
– pacification, not only of Kosovo, but of the entire region of the Balkans;
– restraint of both Serbian and Albanian nationalisms;
– regular international control of the respect of international law concearning human rights in the entire FRY;
– elimination of the reasons for NATO forces to violate the international legal order;
– prevention of new global polarization and block divisions.
The adoption of the above-mentioned five points would invalidate the basic argument of the ehnic Albanian secessionists that Serbia is not a democratic country and that, in it, they would always be second-class citizens. On the other hand, the FRY government would be made equal with governments of other democratic states with respect to international control and could not complain about "double standards" and discrimination by the large powers, primarily the U.S.A.
Finally, a political arrangement based on the above-mentioned five points would stop the further erosion of the international law and the UN institutions, aggravated with the NATO aggression against the FRY. The future of all fundamental values upon which international law has been built rests on cooperation of all states within the UN, rather than on a policy of force, such as currently exercised by NATO as the last vestige of the cold-war epoch.
By joining our voice to the protest against the war waged on the entire territory of the FRY and all forms of the accompanying war propaganda, we manifest our deep conviction that the existing problems in Kosovo can be resolved peacefully and in line with international law.
Presidency of the Yugoslav Sociological Association
Yugoslav Sociological Association
Studentski trg 1,
11000 Belgrade,
Yugoslavia
Phone: ++381 11 637 115
E-mail: ysa@afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Belgrade,
May 18, 1999
COLLATERAL CATASTROPHE OF NATURE?
The protection of a population under threat used to be a noble duty, but it requires a clear motive of the protector and a precise strategy to improve the well-being of all sides involved in the conflict. After two months of "protecting" Albanians in the Kosovo region of Yugoslavia, thousands of bombs and missiles are still crashing down on the people of Yugoslavia. NATO bombs turn the whole territory of Yugoslavia into a horrible place where all of its 26 nations are merely trying to survive.
NATO introduced a very strange strategy of protection: each missile that hits the ground exacerbates the humanitarian disaster that NATO authorities claim to be preventing. They authorized targeting both military facilities and civilian institutions and services. They have also attacked objects that cause enormous ecological harm to the whole of the Balkan peninsula.
Feasible precautions were not applied to avoid obvious poisoning of people and soil. Allied planes armed with special graphite bombs targeted Serbia's electrical power grid, blacking out a large part of Yugoslavia. About one million citizens in our country are short of water supply due to NATO bombing. Among recent incidents giving rise to these
concerns are: the destruction of thousands of factories, economic and industrial facilities which meet the basic needs of the population; attacks on Yugoslavia's refineries, warehouses storing liquid raw materials and chemicals intended for oil and chemical industry, causing serious contamination of soil, water and air.
NATO forces heavily bombarded the plants of the Petrochemical Complex in Pancevo. Installations and equipment of the Vinyl Chloride Monomer plant and Ethylen plant were directly hit. Indirectly, heavy and destructive explosions damaged the Chlor-alkali plant and Polyvinylchloride plant and buildings inside the complex as well as a large number of civilian houses and flats in the surrounding area. The fire broke out and huge quantities of toxic matters such as chlorine, ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride monomer flowed out. The transformer stations were also heavily damaged and very toxic transformer oil flowed out. Unfortunately, but unavoidably a large number of people were injured and intoxicated.
The municipality of Baric has also been hit with the great complex for the production of chloride, which is using Bopal technology. It is not necessary to explain what the blowing up of one of such factories would represent. Not only Belgrade, which is situated at a 10 km distance, would be endangered, but the rest of Europe too. In the Belgrade suburb of Sremcica a factory for the chemical production and a rocket fuel storage was hit causing a milder intoxication of the surrounding area. The municipality of Grocka has been hit - on the territory of which the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences is situated, containing a great storage of nuclear waste. The nuclear reactor Vinca near Belgrade may soon become a NATO target. The reactor in Vinca Institut has been out of use for more than 15 years, but the significant amount of 235-U enriched and unused fuel is still in its interior. Highly radioactive material for everyday activities is also located in several research laboratories. The consequences of such a strike may spell doom for all the Balkans, and many other European countries. At worst, no Balkan and even European country would be safe.
Even Pentagon confirms the usage of depleted uranium (Broadcast on BCC, Friday, May 7, 1999 at 18:40 GMT 19:40 UK). Environment Correspondent Alex Kirby from the US Defense Department said that its aircrafts are firing depleted uranium (DU) munitions in the conflict with Serbia. A questioner at a briefing asked if the A-10s have actually been firing DU shells in addition to simply carrying them. A Pentagon spokesman, Major-General Chuck Wald, simply confirmed it. DU is a byproduct of the enrichment of uranium for military and civilian uses. It is both radioactive and toxic. The US army's Environmental Policy Institute reported in 1995: "If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences". "The risks associated with DU are both chemical and radiological."
After these attacks hundreds of thousands of citizens have been exposed to poisonous gasses which can have lasting effects on the health of the entire population and the environment. Most DU bombs are used in Kosovo which makes the whole area exceptionally unsafe. Paradoxically, it will be the Kosovo refugees that will be at the greatest risk from the consequences of NATO bombing, when they start returning to their homes.
The World Wide Fund for Nature says an environmental crisis threatens Yugoslavia and its neighbors, particularly further down the Danube and in the Black Sea. It says the damage to downstream areas of the unidentified pollutants discharged into the Danube is unclear. Ten million people depend on the river for drinking water. Serbia is one of the greatest sources of underground waters in Europe and the contamination will be felt in the whole surrounding area all the way to the Black Sea. We wonder if somebody could cynically label it as a "collateral catastrophe of nature"?
Presidency of the Yugoslav Sociological Association
Yugoslav Sociological Association
Studentski trg 1
11000 Belgrade
Yugoslavia
Phone: ++381 11 637 115
E-mail: ysa@afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Belgrade
May 14, 1999
Dear colleagues sociologists,
Before 24 March 1999 it was possible for some of us to condone the violation of international law, UN Charter, the NATO Founding act, FR Germany's Constitution and other written and unwritten norms, because we could have believed Clinton's and Blair's words that the aim of the NATO bombing was to "save thousands of innocent men, women and children from humanitarian catastrophe, from death, barbarism and ethnic cleansing".
After more than a thousand killed civilians and hundreds of thousands of Albanian and non-Albanian refugees looking for shelter throughout Yugoslavia and Europe, most of us have questioned the validity of these words. As social scientists intent on recognizing social interests behind words, none of us should have believed in these words a priori. If our sociological imagination had been strong enough, we should have read what the ideological representatives of the multinational capital and NATO were not afraid to define openly, mocking "humanitarian" and "human rights" moralizing apologetics. Thus Robert D. Kaplan reveals underlying imperialist interest behind the NATO intervention in the article "Why the Balkans Demand Amorality" (28 February 1999,Washington Post): "With the Middle East increasingly fragile, we will need bases and fly-over rights in the Balkans to protect Caspian Sea oil."
After 14 April 1999 NATO bombing of the convoy of civilian refugees, who were going back to their homes in accordance with the agreement reached through direct negotiations between Serbs, Albanians and other ethnic groups in Kosovo and Metohija on the organization of their common life, it is not possible any more to use refugees as an excuse for humanitarian bombing.
From now on, anyone who tries to legitimize the NATO aggression actually consciously condones the so called "collateral damage". In the short run that means to condone the wounding and killing of just born and yet unborn babies, of helpless children, women, old people. In the medium term, that means to condone the destruction of preconditions for peoples' physical and spiritual existence, factories, hospitals, schools, bridges, churches. In the long term that means to condone mass killing through poisoning of water, air and soil, due to bombing of sites containing toxic materials by cassette bombs with depleted uranium.
We appeal to you to raise your voice against NATO authorities and their political masters, who insist that the only solution to the Kosovo crisis is their "victory". They are presently mobilizing new thousands of mostly non-white and lower class reservists and demand additional 4 billion dollars for operations until September. One part of hundreds of billions of dollars and German marks allotted to US and German "defenses" yearly, as already been spent on training and arming KLA, in spite of the United Nation Security Council's embargo on any arms imports into the territories of former Yugoslavia. The NATO is virtually using KLA as its own ground army, disregarding the well-grounded suspicions that the KLA is partly financed by the narco mafia.
We appeal to you once again to raise your voice against such policies and against the cynical misuse of the rhetoric of human rights. Please help the public opinion in your country realize that it is their taxpayer money that is being wasted on killing innocent people, while just a portion of those amounts if invested in resolving the Kosovo conflict by peaceful means could have yielded much better and more lasting results.
Presidency of the Yugoslav Sociological Association
Yugoslav Sociological Association
Studentski trg 1,
11000 Belgrade,
Yugoslavia
Phone: ++381 11 637 115
E-mail: ysa@afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu
ysa@f.bg.ac.yu
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Belgrade
May 11, 1999
FAMILIES UNDER BOMBS
Dear Friends and Colleagues
It has been fifty days that Yugoslav cities and villages, houses, factories, schools, hospitals, roads, trains, buses, airports, bridges, fields and forests are being bombed day and night. In this NATO bombing of our country the family and its members, especially children, the ill and the old are chief civilian victims and targets.
1. One million children are out of school. They are terrified by permanent alarms and bombing of their cities and villages, breaking their daily activities as well as their sleeping hours. Instead of enjoying springtime, its sports and games, they spend hours and hours in unhealthy underground shelters. Many of them are separated from their parents in order to avoid direct dangers of bombing, but in constant fear for their parents.
2. Parents have lost their jobs because major industrial plants in Serbia which employed most workers and professionals are totally destroyed by bombing. It is estimated than more than 700,000 people lost their jobs in this way. These families have no possibility to find some other job or source of income, not only while the bombing lasts, but also for a long time afterwards. In this way the very survival of these families and their members is threatened.
3. Many houses, particularly in urban areas, have been destroyed or heavily damaged by bombing. The families living in them became homeless. If we add the fact of losing family income, a frequent occurrence among these households, in such cases we are facing a thorough devastation of preconditions for normal family life.
4. Due to fear, stress, dangers and destruction of their possessions and material goods, more than a million families and households are now on the move, trying to find temporary shelter. In the preceding years, more than 700,000 refugees came to Serbia from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. As a result, in Yugoslavia we are facing a huge migration wave. In this forced migration families and households with various ethnic, religious and national backgrounds are equally represented.
5. Daily performance of vital family functions for millions of households has been endangered by targeting essential infrastructural elements indispensable for civilian life, such as electricity and water supply systems, transport communications (roads and bridges, bus stations, etc.), telephone networks, post offices, as well as equipment for mass media communication. As a consequence of such a selection of targets, chances for survival of infants, the ill, and old people have become very much reduced.
6. As always in situations of family crises women are the members of the family who take the greatest burden of duties and sufferings on their shoulders. Women are exposed to strenuous work, stress and tensions to keep their families alive, and to help and care
for all its members (young, old, ill). The most recent medical data show that the rate of premature births has multiplied by the factor six. This illustrates very clearly the pressures and fears experienced by wives and mothers in the current circumstances.
7. All these negative effects, suffering, pressures and tensions which have been threatening and disintegrating normal family life, do not respect ethnic, national, or religious divisions or borders; all families, regardless of their ethnic or other differences, have been suffering in the same way from NATO bombing.
As our colleagues and professionals you certainly understand very well what disturbances war brings into society and into family life. We appeal to you to raise your voice against further NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and its people, and to support peaceful solutions of the Kosovo conflict through the international community.
Presidency of the Yugoslav Sociological Association
Yugoslav Sociological Association
Studentski trg 1,
11000 Belgrade,
Yugoslavia
Phone: ++381 11 637 115
E-mail: ysa@afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu
ysa@f.bg.ac.yu
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Belgrade
May 6, 1999
This letter of the French intellectuals, our colleagues, sociologists, has convinced us that a critical, nonconformist scientific thought still exists in Europe; that the Orwellian newspeak of Masters of the War has not entirely contaminated the European sociological reason. This fact encourages us very much and gives us faith and strength to persist in our efforts to show how senseless the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia is. We are sending the letter to you hoping that it will encourage you, too to join us in the campaign against the use of violence in solving the Kosovo crisis.
Presidency of the Yugoslav Sociological Association
Yugoslav Sociological Association
Studentski trg 1,
11000 Belgrade,
Yugoslavia
Phone: ++381 11 637 115
E-mail: ysa@afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu
ysa@f.bg.ac.yu
CESSATION OF BOMBING, SELF-DETERMINATION
We do not accept the following false dilemmas:
- To support a NATO intervention, or to support reactionary policy of the Serbian government in Kosovo? NATO strikes, having caused the retreat of OSCE forces from Kosovo, have facilitated rather than prevented an offensive of the Serb para-military forces in the area; NATO attacks encourage ultranationalistic revanchism against the Kosovar (Albanian) population; these attacks consolidate the dictatorship of Slobodan Milosevic, who has silenced independent media and mustered nationwide consensus which, on the contrary, should be broken in order to pave the way to peaceful negotiations about Kosovo.
- To accept the "Peace plan" elaborated by the USA and the EU as the only possible basis of negotiations, or to bomb Serbia? There is no lasting solution to a serious internal political conflict in any country that can be imposed externally, by force. It is not true that "we have tried everything" in searching for solution and an acceptable framework of negotiations. The Kosovar (Albanian) negotiators were forced to sign a plan - which they had originally rejected - after being convinced that the NATO forces would interfere in the region to defend their case. This lie has given rise to a total illusion: there is no government supporting the NATO aggression that would wage a war against the Serbian forces in order to impose the independence of Kosovo. The attacks will, probably, weaken a part of the Serbian military power, but will not weaken the guns that ruin the Albanian houses, nor the para-military forces that are killing combatants of the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army).
The NATO has not been the only, and especially not the best point for making an agreement. The conditions for a multinational police (made of Serbs and Albanians in the first place) could have been found within the OSCE for implementing a transitive agreement. Particularly, the negotiation plan could have been widened so as to include Balkan countries affected by the conflict: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania... The rights to self-government of the Kosovar Albanians and protection of the Serbian minority in Kosovo could have been defended as well; a response to aspirations and fears of the various peoples in the region interested for cooperation and agreement between the neighbouring states with Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania... None of that has been attempted.
We do not accept the following arguments adduced to legitimize NATO intervention:
- It is not true that NATO attacks will prevent flaring up of conflicts in the region, or in Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina; on the contrary, they will stir it up. The attacks will destabilize Bosnia-Herzegovina and undoubtedly jeopardize the international forces responsible for implementation of the Dayton agreement. They have already incited the flames of conflict in Macedonia.
- It is not true that NATO protects the population of Kosovo; it does not protect their rights either.
- It is not true that the bombing of Serbia paves the way to a democratic regime.
Governments of the EU and the USA have hoped perhaps that a demonstration of force will press Slobodan Milosevic to sign their plan.
Was it a sign of their naïveté or hypocrisy? At any rate, such a policy leads not only to a political impasse, but also to a legitimization of NATO's action beyond any international control.
Therefore we demand:
- an immediate cessation of bombing;
- organization of a conference of the Balkan countries with the participation of representatives of various states and of all ethnic communities living in these states;
- protection of the principle of people's right to self-determination, but provided that its realization does not obstruct the right of another people and implies no ethnic cleansing;
- a debate in the French Parliament about the future of France in the NATO alliance.
Pierre Bourdieu, Pauline Boutron, Suzanne de Brunhoff, Noëlle Burgi-Golub, Jean Christophe Chaumeron, Thomas Coutrot, Daniel Bensaïd, Daniel Durant, Robin Foot, Ana-Maria Galano, Philip Golub, Michel Husson, Paul Jacquin, Marcel-Francis Kahn, Bernard Langlois, Ariane Lantz, Pierre Lantz, Florence Lefresne, Catherine Lévy, Jean-Philippe Milésy, Patrick Mony, Aline Pailler, Catherine Samary, Rolande Trempé, Pierre Vidal-Naquet.
LE MONDE, 31 MARCH 1999
Arrêt des bombardements, autodétermination
NOUS n'acceptons pas les faux dilemmes : - Soutenir l'intervention de l'OTAN ou soutenir la politique réactionnaire du pouvoir serbe au Kosovo ? Les frappes de l'OTAN imposant le retrait des forces de l'OSCE du Kosovo ont facilité et non pas empêché une offensive sur le terrain des forces paramilitaires serbes ; elles encouragent le pire des revanchismes ultranationalistes serbes contre la population kosovare ; elles consolident le pouvoir dictatorial de Slobodan Milosevic qui a muselé les médias indépendants et rassemblé autour de lui un consensus national qu'il faut au contraire briser pour ouvrir la voie à une négociation politique pacifique sur le Kosovo. - Accepter comme seule base de négociation possible le " plan de paix " élaboré par les gouvernements des Etats-Unis ou de l'Union européenne - ou bombarder la Serbie ? Aucune solution durable à un conflit politique majeur interne à un Etat ne peut être imposée de l'extérieur, par la force. Il n'est pas vrai que " tout a été tenté " pour trouver une solution et un cadre acceptable de négociations. On a forcé les négociateurs kosovars à signer un plan qu'ils ont initialement rejeté en leur laissant croire que l'OTAN s'impliquerait sur le terrain pour défendre leur cause. C'est un mensonge qui entretient une totale illusion : aucun des gouvernements qui soutiennent les frappes de l'OTAN ne veut faire la guerre au pouvoir serbe pour imposer l'indépendance du Kosovo. Les frappes affaibliront peut-être une partie du dispositif militaire serbe mais ne vont pas affaiblir les tirs de mortiers qui, sur le terrain, détruisent les maisons albanaises, ni les forces para- militaires qui exécutent les combattants de l'UCK (Armée de libération du Kosovo).
L'OTAN n'était pas le seul ni surtout le meilleur point d'appui d'un accord. On pouvait trouver les conditions d'une police multinationale (notamment composée de Serbes et d'Albanais) dans le cadre de l'OSCE pour appliquer un accord transitoire. On pouvait, surtout, élargir le cadre de la négociation aux Etats balkaniques fragilisés par ce conflit:
la Bosnie-Herzégovine, la Macédoine, l'Albanie... On pouvait à la fois défendre le droit des Kosovars à l'auto-gouvernement de la province et la protection des minorités serbes du Kosovo; on pouvait chercher à répondre aux aspirations et aux peurs des différents peuples concernés par des liens de coopération et des accords entre Etats voisins, avec la
Serbie, la Bosnie-Herzégovine, la Macédoine, l'Albanie... Rien de tout cela n'a été tenté.
Nous n'acceptons pas les arguments qui tentent de légitimer l'intervention de l'OTAN : - Il n'est pas vrai que les frappes de l'OTAN vont empêcher un embrasement de la région, en Macédoine ou en Bosnie-Herzégovine: elles vont au contraire l'alimenter. Elles vont fragiliser la Bosnie-Herzégovine et sans doute menacer les forces multinationales chargées d'y appliquer les fragiles accords de Dayton. Elles embrasent déjà la Macédoine. - Il n'est pas vrai que l'OTAN protège les populations kosovares, ni leurs droits. - Il n'est pas vrai que les bombardements de la Serbie ouvrent la voie à un régime démocratique en Serbie.
Les gouvernements de l'Union européenne comme celui des Etats-Unis ont peut-être espéré que cette démonstration de force forcerait la signature de leur plan par Slobodan Milosevic. Ont-ils ainsi fait preuve de naïveté ou d'hypocrisie ? En tout cas cette politique mène non seulement à une impasse politique, mais à une légitimation du rôle de
l'OTAN hors de tout cadre international de contrôle.
C'est pourquoi nous demandons : - l'arrêt immédiat de ces bombardements;
- l'organisation d'une conférence balkanique où participent les représentants des Etats et de toutes les communautés nationales de ces Etats ; -la défense de principe du droit des peuples à l'autodétermination, à la seule condition que ce droit ne se réalise pas sur le dos d'un autre peuple et par le nettoyage ethnique de territoires; - un débat au Parlement sur l'avenir de la participation de la France à l'OTAN.
Pierre Bourdieu, Pauline Boutron, Suzanne de Brunhoff, Noëlle Burgi-Golub, Jean- Christophe Chaumeron, Thomas Coutrot, Daniel Bensaïd, Daniel Durant, Robin Foot, Ana-Maria Galano, Philip Golub, Michel Husson, Paul Jacquin, Marcel-Francis Kahn, Bernard Langlois, Ariane Lantz, Pierre Lantz, Florence Lefresne, Catherine Lévy, Jean-Philippe Milésy, Patrick Mony, Aline Pailler, Catherine Samary, Rolande Trempé, Pierre Vidal-Naquet.
LE MONDE / 31 Mars 1999
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Belgrade
May 2, 1999
ON DEMOCRACY?
Has the Orwellian newspeak become so inveterate that its hypocrisy satisfies the moral sense of the Western public? If destroying lives of others leaves people in the West indifferent, don't they feel though that the rhetoric of the so-called humanitarian war is a threat to their own way of life too? To what degree should their conscience be anesthetized to accept the following "explanations" (offered via their media) of the NATO bombing:
– We do not bomb the people of Serbia, but the President Milosevic;
or:
– We are particularly fond of the Serbs; that's why we must drop bombs on them;
or:
– We are bombing Serbia to prevent humanitarian catastrophe of the Albanians in Kosovo. The fact that it (the exodus) happened after we had started bombing, assured us that we were right. Therefore, we will intensify bombing to prevent further escalation of the catastrophe;
or:
- The train caused the accident since it ran towards the missiles;
or:
– The very center of the city of Aleksinac is about 500 meters away from our target; so, our failure isn't significant at all;
or:
– Milosevic is to blame for our pilots dropping bombs on the Albanian refugees;
or:
- the TV studios of the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) were legitimate targets of our military actions, since the RTS did not broadcast information which we had proclaimed to be the truth;
or:
- Murdered civilians (500, 700, 1000...?) are collateral victims, etc.
We are not surprised that the NATO authorities and their political masters use these, and many other cynical arguments, to justify their actions – for, it is obvious now, they have been raised within Orwellian matrices. What, however, is terrifying, is the fact that the public of the Western democratic countries have widely accepted these cynicisms, and that they do not recognize the Orwellian reality (langsam aber sicher) entering their world.
Sociologists (all over the world), join us in our protest against the NATO aggression; let's prevent together that the bomb-detonations become the funeral march of democratic principles.
Presidency of the Yugoslav Sociological Association
Jugoslovensko udruzenje za sociologiju
Yugoslav Sociological Association
Studentski trg 1, 11000 Belgrade
Yugoslavia
Phone: ++ 381 11 637 115
E mail: YSA@afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu
YSA@f.bg.ac.yu
XXXXXXXXXXX
Belgrade
April 29, 1999
ON BELGRADE (BEOGRAD)
Belgrade is one of the oldest cities in Europe. Its Slavic name (Beograd) is 1121 years old. During its long history Belgrade has been destroyed about 150 times. The fate of Belgrade confirms that 20th century is undoubtedly the period of the most horrible wars and destruction in history. In the first half of this century alone, Belgrade was destroyed thrice: in 1915, 1941 and 1944. During World War II it was bombed both by Germans (1941) and Anglo-Americans (1944). "Chronicles of happy days" are quite rare in the Balkans, and many cities in the region are veritable sufferers and martyrs. Long time ago, Belgrade entered up on the list of cities-victims, such as Jericho, Babylon, Troy, Hiroshima, Warsaw, Rotterdam, London, Dresden, Vukovar, Mostar, Sarajevo... At the end of the 2nd millennium, starting with 24 March 1999, Belgrade and almost all Yugoslav cities became targets of the greatest and most powerful military machine in history; a machine led by political elites of the 19 most developed countries of the world; the machine called NATO.
In Belgrade ruins from World War II still stand; this spring the enemy is killing our body and soul again. Civilian victims of the aggression include the 3-year-old Milica Rakic, or a worker from Novi Beograd; while journalists, technicians, sound engineers - employees of the Radio Television of Serbia in Belgrade, about 20 of them (the figure is not definitive yet) - died on the day of the NATO jubilee. (Altogether, up to now NATO bombing has killed almost 600 civilians in FR Yugoslavia!) Thus, this is not just an urbicide any more; this aggression obviously turns into a genocide! Besides, by destroying the cultural and building heritage, NATO destroys time, history, beauty, collective memory, self-consciousness, that is, the identity of Belgrade and its inhabitants.
We still have not recovered from the loss of the National Library destroyed entirely by the German general Lehr in 1941; similar cultural catastrophe will, we fear, happen again. Belgrade has always been, and has remained, a city with the "experience of difference", one of the most ethnically heterogeneous cities in Yugoslavia, a metropolis between West and East, a milieu in which values of pluralism, tolerance and coexistence have brought about a unique and flexible culture. The whole world has heard of BITEF, BEMUS, FEST... cultural events which have become a hallmark of genuine pluralism, of civil and student protest in the winter 1996/97... If the war masters continue furiously to destroy Belgrade, as they have been doing over the past 35 days, than all members of the world community will become Belgrade’s refugees. If the culture of Belgrade dies, everyone in the world will become a Belgrade orphan. For, Belgrade is the world.
We believe in reason and conscience of the democrats all over the world, particularly of our colleagues sociologists, to support our campaign against NATO bombing and encourage political dialogue that would lead to a peaceful solution.
Presidency of the Yugoslav Sociological Association
Yugoslav Sociological Association
Studentski trg 1, 11000 Belgrade
Yugoslavia
Phone: ++ 381 11 637 115
E mail: YSA@afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu
YSA@f.bg.ac.yu
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Belgrade
April 23, 1999
ON BRIDGES
Bridges, just like cities, are an indelible part of collective memory. As it is well known, throughout history cities vanished, ridges were ruined, but the memory has remained. It is not just an empty phrase to say that bridges link people. Huns (in the 5th entury A.D.) were the only people who tried to divide the city from civilization. We know: they did not succeed. No contemporary devastation has the power to do that either.
History remembers city builders, and collective memory remembers city destroyers, even those who have no name. We remember the bridges which are not ours since they are the heritage of civilization; the largest and the smallest, the champions and the miniatures. The first bridge with arches in Babylon (1800 B.C.); the bridges of Darius I and Xerxes I; the first modern bridge over the river Tweed in Kelso (Scotland; built by John Rennie in 1803); the first bridge made of stone with arches over the river Martorell, near Barcelona (Spain, 219 B.C.); Ponte di Augusto in Rimini (Italy, the first century B.C.); Pont du Gard in Nimes (France, 1st century B.C.); we know that Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea Palladio built bridges; we know that the first European champion bridges were built in Switzerland, about 1760; we know that the first chain-bridges were built in the USA, about 1800, and some ten years later in Britain; we know that the first hanging bridge spanned the river Schuylkill in Philadelphia (USA, 1818); we know that the first railroad bridge was built by J. Fowler and B. Baker on Firth of Forth in Queensferry (Scotland, 1882-1890); we know that the Brooklyn Bridge (1883; an achievement of John A. Roebling and his son Washington) is "the most satisfactory structure of any kind that has appeared in America" (L. Mumford); we are familiar with all other bridges.
We know that in spring 1999 many bridges were demolished in Yugoslavia. Particularly those over the river Danube. Particularly those in the city of Novi Sad. In the city with, probably, the greatest number of various ethnic communities in Europe. None of these ruined bridges was a champion bridge; none of them was as big as the Golden Gate (USA), or the Humber Bridge (England), nor as high as the Bosphor bridge in Istanbul (Turkey). They were common bridges over the river Danube, a river which links European west and east. They were common bridges for the common people. So far we have been remembering the builders only. At the end of the 20th century, the destroyers enter collective memory. Their names enter collective memory too.
On behalf of the Yugoslav Sociological Association
Professor Ljubinko Pusic, University of Novi Sad
Yugoslav Sociological Association
Studentski trg 1,
11000 Belgrade,
Yugoslavia
Phone: ++381 11 637 115
E-mail: ysa@afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu
ysa@f.bg.ac.yu
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Belgrade
April 9, 1999
To the Sociologists of Europe and the World
As is widely known, on March 24 1999, NATO started armed aggression on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and thereby broke the sovereignty of our country as well as the UN Charter and international law. All vital and strategic objects of our country, as well as kindergartens, schools, residential areas, hospitals and cultural inheritance - everything our people have been building for generations and everything given to us by nature - have been the targets of NATO bombs and missiles. The worst of all is that civil population is suffering - children, women and men are being killed and wounded, the monuments of cultural heritage and the identity of our settlements are being destroyed, the ecological catastrophe is threatening us, while NATO "regrets the collateral damage". Our agony is immeasurable. How long would that last?
We believe you understand that violence produces nothing but violence. Armed attacks of NATO cannot resolve the Kosovo crisis, for instead of preventing one it produces another, much wider humanitarian catastrophe. We expect you to raise your voice against NATO bombing. In the spirit of our previous peace efforts and against the use of armed forces in resolving political crises, we demand urgent suspension of bombing of Serbia and Montenegro as well as urgent return to peace process. We appeal to our colleagues in Europe and all over the world to protest against NATO's military intervention against FR Yugoslavia in the name of permanent values of civilised society. We are convinced that this is not only our interest, but also the interest of the Balkans, Europe and the whole humankind.
Hoping for your understanding and support our peace efforts,
Most sincerely,
Slobodan Vukovic, PhD, president
The Sociological Society of Serbia
Karel Turza, PhD, vice-president
The Yugoslav Sociological Association
Prof. Dobrivoje Radovanovic, PhD, head
The Institute of Criminological and Sociological Research, Belgrade
Prof. Sreten Vujovic, PhD, head
The Institute of Sociological Research, Department of Sociology, The
University of Belgrade
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Belgrade,
April 7, 1999
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NATO AUTHORITIES AND THEIR POLITICAL MASTERS
We confess: we lack words with which to articulate our view of your political stupidity and moral nihilism. Therefore, we remind you of the words that Lewis Mumford wrote to the US government more than fifty years ago, after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; for these words, regrettably, still are entirely appropriate:
"Gentlemen, you are mad! We in America are living among madmen. Madmen govern our affairs in the name of order and security. And the fatal symptom of their madness is this: they have been carrying through a series of acts which may lead to the destruction of mankind, under the solemn conviction that they are normal responsible people, living sane lives, and working for reasonable ends".
What can be added? Nothing, except: we in Europe live among madmen as well!
Presidency of the Yugoslav Sociological Association
Yugoslav Sociological Association
Studentski trg 1,
11000 Belgrade,
Yugoslavia
Phone: ++381 11 637 115
E-mail: ysa@afrodita.rcub.bg.ac.yu
ysa@f.bg.ac.yu