Ivo Skoric on Sat, 1 May 1999 19:46:47 +0200 (CEST)


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<nettime> ivogram 010599: way in, way out, net access is FYU, pesky kosovars


Ivo Skoric <ivo@reporters.net>
          way in and way out
          Internet Access in Yugoslavia
          [fwd] The Nation

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 09:33:38 +0000
Subject: way in and way out

Hungary - the refueling planes for NATO bombers will fly out of 
Hungary, and Hungary became a NATO country barely two weeks before 
the air-strikes against Serbia commenced. Almost as if there is some 
connection between the two.

Bulgaria - now this is some serious guidance failure. A missile 
released over Montenegro - supposedly to hit a Serbian air-defense 
radar that had locked onto a NATO aircraft - flew all the way to 
Sophia, and fell there. So, this was a HARM missile? But those 
missiles do not have that range. Cruise-missiles do. But why would 
the pilot fire a cruise-missile in a response to an immediate 
missile treat? Oooops, wrong button. You get kind of lazy when you 
get to play a game in the God-mode.

Bridges - NATO got quite persistent with them bridges, so now all 
land connection with the part of Serbia West from Danube and North 
from Sava, which borders with Croatia, is cut. Will that give Tudjman 
ideas and/or would NATO like for that to give Tudjman ideas?

Montenegro - gets pounded with NATO nervous to finish this campaign 
already. Fuel depots, airports and army reinforcements for Kosovo.

Congress - voted down escalation of Clinton's war in Kosovo weary of 
such escalations in the past. Popular support is nevertheless still 
very high. That might change if Serbs manage to nuke the CNN uplink 
in Atlanta.

Jesse Jackson - he decided to go to Belgrade and try to get the three 
US POWs so they don't have to wait for the end of the war, with the 
foresight of for how long this war may last. No word of whether 
Serbia sent somebody to plea for its POW in American hands in 
Albania, or whether the prisoner applied for a green card so far on.

ivo

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Sat, 1 May 1999 01:19:23 +0000
Subject: Internet Access in Yugoslavia

Unlike television, which in its top to bottom one way communication 
somehow symbolizes totalitarian structure, Internet is a democracy 
promoting media. There are signs of danger that it could be shut off 
in Serbia. The West officials might not care, since it fits their 
picture of barbarian state of Serbia. I believe that netizens, who by 
nature transcend borders of geography and nationality, should help 
Internet in Serbia survive (after all, it was meant to survive a 
nuclear war...) 

ivo

YUGOSLAV NGOs
Belgrade, April 26, 1999



STATEMENT ON POSSIBLE INTERNET BAN

We, the representatives of the Yugoslav civil society, coming together to
protest NATO bombing and ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia now have to deal with
other problem that could uncouple us from the world and practically forbid our
free expression and dissent.  One threat is coming from Yugoslav government
agencies and the controlled domestic INTERNET providers. For them it is
important to shut up all independent voices for which reason they banned the
radio B92 and put under control other independent media.  For NATO it appears
important to cut off all dissenting people and groups from Yugoslavia in order
to maintain the image of Yugoslav society as if it is totally controlled by
Milosevic regime and made only of extreme nationalists who therefore deserve
punishment by bombs.  For us who are long time activists of human rights,
minority rights, union rights, free press rights, women rights, peace and
democracy activists, it is vital to maintain Internet connection to the world
in order to get information and communicate with people about our situation.
We are using INTERNET with respect to the netiquette and urge all Yugoslav
users to avoid hostile and insulting vocabulary. We also pledge to all our
international contact people to exercise their influence on INTERNET public
opinion to avoid aggressive language and hatespeech in correspondences to
people in Yugoslavia.


PLEASE HELP US TO STAY IN TOUCH WITH THE WORLD!

Yugoslav NGOs:

- Association of Citizens for Democracy, Social Justice and Support for
  Trade Unions
- Belgrade Circle
- Center for Democracy and Free Elections
- Center for Transition to Democracy
- Civic Initiatives
- EKO Center
- Belgrade Women Studies Center
- European Movement in Serbia
- Forum for Ethnic Relations and Foundation for Peace and Crisis Management
- Group 484
- Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
- The Student Union of Yugoslavia
- Union for Truth About Anti-Fascist Resistance
- WIN- Weekly Video News
- Women in Black
- YU Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights
- District 0230 Kikinda
- Urban in Novi Pazar, and
-    Center for Policy Studies
-    Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)
- NEZAVISNOST Trade Union Confederation
- The Centre for the Promotion of Information and Democracy - CeRID

****************************************************************************
JUGOSLOVENSKE NVO
Beograd, 26. April 1999.

IZJAVA O MOGUCEM ISKLJUCENJU SA INTERNETA

Mi, predstavnici jugoslovenskog civilnog drustva okupljeni u grupu koja
protestvuje protiv NATO bombardovanja i etnickog ciscenja u Jugoslaviji sada
moramo da se nosimo sa jos jednim problemom koji bi mogao da nas iskljuci iz
sveta i uskrati nam pravo na slobodno izjasnjavanje i neslaganje.  Jedna
pretnja dolazi od sluzbi jugoslovenskih vlasti i od njih kontrolisanih INTERNET
provajdera. Za njih je vazno da ucutkaju sve nezavisne glasove zbog cega su
zatvorili radio B92 i stavili pod kontrolu ostale nezavisne medije.  S druge
strane, za NATO se cini vaznim da se izoluju svi oni koji pripadaju opoziciji i
civilnom sektoru da bi se potvrdio stvoreni imidz jugoslovenskog drustva kao
onog koje je totalno kontrolisano od Milosevica i koje cine samo ekstremni
nacionalisti, pa stoga zasluzuju kaznjavanje bombama.  Za nas koji smo
dugogodisnji borci za manjinska prava, sindikalna i zenska prava (i ljudska
prava uopste), za mir i demokratiju od zivotne je vaznosti da odrzimo svoju
INTERNET vezu sa svetom da bi smo dobijali informacije i da bismo mogli da
komuniciramo sa nama slicnima.  Mi smo do sada koristili INTERNET sa
postovanjem prema usvojenoj netiketi (netiquette). Apelujemo na sve
jugoslovenske korisnike INTERNETA da ne koriste agresivni i uvredljiv recnik i
tako ne provociraju strane provajdere i kontrolore INTERNETA da nas skinu sa
mreze i tako nas onemoguce u sirenju naseg vidjenja ovoga sto se dogadja.


MOLIMO VAS DA NAM OMOGUCITE
DA OSTANEMO U VEZI SA SVETOM !

Jugoslovenske NVO:

- Association of Citizens for Democracy, Social Justice and Support for
  Trade Unions
- Belgrade Circle
- Center for Democracy and Free Elections
- Center for Transition to Democracy
- Civic Initiatives
- EKO Center
- Belgrade Women Studies Center
- European Movement in Serbia
- Forum for Ethnic Relations and Foundation for Peace and Crisis Management
- Group 484
- Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
- The Student Union of Yugoslavia
- Union for Truth About Anti-Fascist Resistance
- WIN- Weekly Video News
- Women in Black
- YU Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights
- District 0230 Kikinda
- Urban in Novi Pazar, and
-    Center for Policy Studies
-    Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)
- NEZAVISNOST Trade Union Confederation
- The Centre for the Promotion of Information and Democracy - CeRID

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Sat, 1 May 1999 01:19:56 +0000
Subject: The Nation

Pentagon and Milosevic agree on certain fundamentals: those pesky 
Kosovo Albanians are always in the way.
ivo

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------


The Nation
May 17, 1999

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

Belgrade Degraded
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every now and then it really happens. A "military spokesman" emerges
to prove that Joseph Heller was a realist, and Catch-22 a work of
reportorial integrity. Right in the middle of the "Military Analysis"
column in the New York Times:

        Indeed, Pentagon and NATO officials have even mused
        that the complete expulsion of Albanians from Kosovo
        would give the alliance a big military advantage.
        "There would be Serb troops primarily left, and we
        would be able to attack them with more precision
        and more concentration," a Pentagon spokesman,
        Kenneth H. Bacon, said recently.

Even the name of the spokesman seemed right somehow: Pork-barreled
to the roots of his tight and curly tail, the porcine propagandist
squeals the inadvertent truth. Throw all the pesky civilians out
to make a new life on the rubbish-tips of neighboring lands (it was
this same Bacon who instructed us earlier that the mass expulsion
had been foreseen and, so to speak, factored in), and we can have our
ultimate wargasm--a free-fire zone and a clear field of bombardment.
What's the frequency, Kenneth? In a Catch-22 scenario, as well as
in the abjectly real world, this would also help insure that the
Kosovar refugees had nowhere to go home to.

This objective collusion, between the aims of Milosevic and the aims
of NATO, is what renders null the current debate between the remnants
of the American "peace movement." On one wing are those who say that
NATO is doing the right thing by taking an antifascist position at last.

On another are those who speak smugly about how all this bombing has
upset the Serbian democrats. Such people also describe the bombing as
an "aggression" and cleverly ask why we don't bomb to save the Kurds
or the Timorese. The other day at a "peace" event in Cambridge, I was
solemnly handed a "target" symbol of the kind worn as a fashion
statement
in Belgrade these days.  I threw it away at once.  Those who wear
such symbols are the self-pitying and not-so-reluctant supporters
of a national-socialist demagogue--people who have never said a word
about the aggressions and massacres in Bosnia and Kosovo. It was
noticeable, at the recent funeral of the murdered Belgrade editor
Slavko Curuvija, that none of the mourners displayed this false-populist

logo. They were the serious opposition, who understand that the main
enemy
is at home. One who attended the ceremony told me that the silence, even

between friends, was terrifying. "If we could not talk about the fact
that he was murdered by the police death-squads, then what could we
talk about?"

A principled peace movement in this country should at least attempt
to contact the few genuine Serbian internationalists, ask them what
they think and inquire how they can be helped. I try at least once a
week
to hold a conversation with either Srdja Popovic or Dusan Makavejev,
both
of whom have long and honorable records as Serb antifascists. Popovic
was the human rights champion of the former Yugoslavia and acted as
defense counsel for the leaders of various national minorities,
including
the Kosovar Albanians. Makavejev, a brilliant film director, is still
remembered for his WR: Mysteries of the Organism, one of the defining
movies of the seventies and a cultural achievement that earned him a
jail sentence until it became clear that the motion picture was also
the country's chief cultural export.

Popovic says openly that NATO should cross the Hungarian border
in strength and remove the Milosevic regime as a precondition for a
settlement. He feels terribly torn about the bombing of Belgrade and
other cities, because he favors the military defeat of his own
government
but finds it uncomfortable to take such a position from a place of
exile.
Clearly unkeen on the actual bombardment, he still fears that if it
stopped, the Serbian leadership would claim, and perhaps win, a victory.

The worst possible outcome--foreshadowed in the Bacon scenario--is one
where the Albanian civilians are dispersed and the Serbian civilians
get punished for it. Milosevic would then have confirmed his membership
in that exclusive club--founded by Saddam Hussein and ornamented by
Manuel Noriega--of despots who can switch between demonization and
strategic value.

Makavejev used to demand, while actually living in Belgrade, that NATO
destroy the Serbian positions that were torturing the people of
Sarajevo.
(His reward was to be denounced as a Jew, which he said was no insult
to a Serb like himself.) But he is entirely against the present bombing
and also speaks scornfully of the ineptitude of NATO propaganda. "None
of
the Serbian democrats--not even the Orthodox bishop in Kosovo who favors

coexistence with Albanians--was even invited to the Rambouillet
conference.
The Montenegrin leadership was also excluded completely. Now Clinton
says
that Milosevic can pick up the phone anytime and call. This is to treat
everyone as if they were puppets."

Both men feel that a huge opportunity was lost when NATO failed to
help the nascent movement for democracy and independence in Montenegro.
A democratic secession would have altered the whole balance of internal
power against Milosevic and his openly fascist coalition partners like
Seselj and Arkan. "But nothing was done--they kept putting it off--and
now the Serbian Army has threatened the editor of a Montenegrin paper
with jail if he even prints an interview with me," I was told by
Popovic.
Moreover, and despite the pleas of the Montenegrin leadership, NATO
bombs
have actually fallen on Montenegrin soil. This crass policy now faces
NATO
with two options--either a sordid carve-up brokered with Russia, as
Clinton and especially Gore show signs of favoring, or a full-scale
invasion, which might not now receive (as it once might have done)
popular support from Serbian civilians.

"I hate it when people blame someone else and don't take responsibility
for what they did." Thus our eloquent President in the aftermath of the
school bloodbath in Colorado. At last, a Clintonian statement that we
can
all get behind. To speak with men like Popovic and Makavejev is to learn

what this principle means in a real crisis, which is why it is alarming
to understand that their names are unknown to the Bacons of this world.
--

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Organization: Raccoon, Inc.
To: pnbalkans@igc.org
Date: Sat, 1 May 1999 01:19:46 +0000
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Subject: (Fwd) Arrests in Prishtina
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Scarce remaining Serbian opposition reports on arrests of prominent 
Albanians in Prishtina:
ivo

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------

>
>>
>>From: Natasa Kandic, Humanitarian Law Center, Belgrade, HLC_NK@EUNET.YU,
>>YHRF # 11
>>
>>Arrests in Pristina, 29 April 1999
>>
>>On 28 April 1999, Albin Kurti was arrested in Pristina, the former leader
>>of the Albanian Students Union and spokesman to the former political
>>representative of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Adem Demaqi. Albins father,
>>an official with the Kosovo Parliamentary Party, was also arrested at this
>>time, as well as Albins two brothers, Nazmi Zeka, the owner of the house
>>where the Kurtis were temporarily residing, and Nazmis son. Witnesses
claim
>>that the arrest was conducted in an extremely brutal manner. Twenty-four
>>hours later, Albins fifteen-year old brother and Nazmi Zeka were released;
>>they both had visible signs of beating.
>>
>>The day before Albin Kurti was arrested, on 27 April 1999, the brother of
a
>>prominent soccer player Fadil Vokrri, Adil, was arrested. No information
>>has been available about the destiny of the arrested persons.
>>
>>On 25 April 1999, Adem Demaqi was taken in for questioning. According to
>>his account, he had been interrogated for two hours in relation to his
>>attitudes towards the solution to the Kosovo issue.
>>
>>There are other developments in Pristina, which cause a feeling of
>>insecurity among the remaining Albanians. The police make rounds visiting
>>homes and compiling lists of Albanians with permanent residence in
Pristina
>>and refugees staying with them. A number of Serb shopkeepers refuse to
sell
>>their goods to Albanians. There are only a few Albanians in Pristina whose
>>telephone lines have not been cut off.
>>
>>
>>**************************************************************************
**
>>****
>
>>
>>contact information:
>>teresa@advocacynet.org
>>(315) 471-7790 voice mail
>>Syracuse, NY 13210
>>
>>www.advocacynet.org
>
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Ivo Skoric
1773 Lexington Ave
New York NY 10029
212.369.9197
ivo@reporters.net
http://balkansnet.org

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