Wednesday, May 26th, 1999

Is it truly NATO bombing that is creating ethnic Albanian refugees?

    Q: Dear Serbs,
I am a 33 year old American living in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. U.S.A. You have stated on your web page that it is the NATO bombing of Kosovo that is causing the exodus of refugees from this province. If it is truly the NATO bombing that is creating the ethnic Albanian refugees, why aren't they all fleeing to Serbia instead of camps in Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro?

    Our logic is based on few simple facts:

    1. Before March 24th, there were thousands of refugees in Kosovo (so-called internally displaced - they stay within Kosovo borders, went to other cities and villages where weren't any clashed between police and KLA). Let's say that then we have 10,000 people out of their homes (don't take this number as a fact).

    2. After March 24th, suddenly hundreds of thousands people are trying to escape from Kosovo. Go anywhere, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania... Let's say 500,000 refugees.

    3. The only important thing that happened on March 24th was beginning of NATO "intervention". NATO started its intervention to prevent or stop humanitarian catastrophe.

    Our conclusion is that NATO caused many more people to leave their home. We do not say that all those people were fleeing from Kosovo because of NATO, but we can claim if NATO didn't start its "intervention", number of refugees wouldn't be this dramatically increased. KLA and Serbian police/army probably used this opportunity created by NATO to intensify their "actions" and there was no safe territory inside Kosovo where they could displace themselves.

    Most of refugees went to Macedonia and Albania. It is obvious for us why only minority have gone to Serbia or Montenegro - NATO is bombing whole Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), not only Kosovo. If one doesn't have family somewhere in Serbia, we don't see any reason why should one go there and have only less chance to be killed instead of going to 100% safe territory.

    Q: Some ethnic Albanian refugees are now at Fort Dix, New Jersey. U.S.A. Why would you flee to the homeland of the very people that are bombing you if it isn't for the fact that the Serbian military truly is guilty of genocide and mass rapes against these people?

    Besides, if you saw conditions in the camps, you would understand why all those people are eager to leave them. If someone offered us to go in the country of aggressors (as countries of NATO are referred on Serbian state TV), we would be glad to accept. America is rich country and before March 24th Serbian workers had average salaries less than 100$ and right now they are getting back payments from March. We suppose regugees in America are getting some social aid and we are sure they are living better than in the camps and probably better than in their homes before March 24th (we know it's hard to compare living in your own home and not willingly living somewhere else, but...)

    It's nonsense to claim that Serbian police/army are completely innocent in this matter, but fact is that number of refugees boomed to more than 50 times when NATO started this campaign.

    Our conclusions: This NATO campaign is total disaster. It didn't stop clashes between KLA and Serbian police/army, but on the contrary intensified them. It didn't bring peace to the ordinary people in Kosovo, but on the contrary forced most of them to leave their homes. It didn't weakened Milosevic's power, but on the contrary made it stronger than ever. Everything NATO officials said their goals are, they failed to fulfill.

    What could happen if Americans/NATO try to reach this goals some other way (and we refuse to believe that there was no other way), we're afraid that all of us will never know.

Tim, worldnet.att.net