The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.18           May 10, 1999 
 
 
NATO Assault Brings Disaster To Workers In Yugoslavia Eyewitness report  

BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS AND BOBBIS MISAILIDES
NIS, Yugoslavia - As you enter this city in southeastern Serbia, the devastated state of a mile-long strip of factories and warehouses on both sides of the road is the first sign of the disaster the five-week-long U.S.-NATO assault is raining on working people here.

Nis (pronounced Neesh), with its suburbs, is one of the largest industrial areas of the country and Yugoslavia's second-largest city. Much of the Tobacco Industry of Nis (DIN) complex - the main cigarette factory in the country, which was in the process of expanding its facilities - has been reduced to rubble and twisted metal. The 3,000 workers there are now out of a job, and Yugoslavia faces a severe shortage of cigarettes. Next to DIN is Yaserbach, the only factory producing industrial pumps in the country, which employed 1,500 workers. It has also been bombed. Scores of smaller plants and industrial shops producing electrical appliances, machine tools, or canned food have also been destroyed or rendered inoperable.

In the early morning hours of April 24, missiles fired by NATO planes damaged Velefarm, the city's main supplier of pharmaceutical products. During that attack, bombs apparently targeting the city's main mechanical engineering complex, which is surrounded by residential areas, demolished a two- story house across the main gate of the plant.

"How can anyone argue that these factories are military targets?" asked Bojko Vucic, a machinist, in an April 27 interview. He pointed to the clinic at the Yaserbach plant that has been destroyed by the bombing. The medical facility - used by workers in that factory, as is common in major plants here - had been clearly marked by huge white banners with a red cross on its roof and sides, but was not spared. Workers were also incensed that the kindergarten and other child-care facilities at the tobacco plant, used by thousands of families, can no longer be used since the April 3-5 bombings of DIN.

"They are leaving us no choice to have a decent life by destroying our plants," said Vucic, who is the local president of Nezavisnost (Independence), the trade union federation independent of government control. "Workers are the ones facing a disaster. NATO is also trying to destroy our dignity and instill fear. There is no other reason that their planes come back a second, third, sometimes a tenth time to hit the same place after it has already been destroyed. They want to demoralize us and make us scared of their power. They will not have as easy a time as they think."

A number of Albanian peasants and workers who were forced to flee Kosova into Montenegro - the republic that along with Serbia comprises the present Federal Republic of Yugoslavia -told Militant reporters they blamed the intensifying NATO air raids for the ongoing "ethnic cleansing" of Kosova by the regime of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.

Tense atmosphere around the clock
The atmosphere in Nis is tense around the clock, unlike Belgrade, which is bustling during the day with traffic and plenty of people sipping Turkish coffee or tea at sidewalk cafes, but becomes a ghost town at night. Air raid sirens go off several times a day in broad daylight. The city has been bombed at least 10 times since March 24, when Washington launched the NATO assault, often with up to two dozen missiles at a time. A higher percentage of the population spends time in the bomb shelters than in Belgrade, since more residential areas have already been damaged or destroyed and an undisclosed number of civilians killed. At night, complete darkness covers the city. Authorities cut off electricity in a not-so-successful attempt to reduce its visibility to NATO bombers.

Piles of used tires burn during the day by all the bridges across the Varda River, which runs through the city center, spreading a foul odor and unhealthy fumes over a large part of Nis. Municipal authorities claim the smoke can divert missiles into missing their targets or into landing without explosion. The city's bridges have not been hit so far, but many people mistrust the wisdom of the tactic. "Neither bad weather, nor the imposed darkness at night, or the ridiculous fires seem to have stopped the imperialist aggression," said Duci Petrovic, a college student here.

Up to 70 percent of Nis's population of more than 300,000 still have ties to the land, we were told. Many workers have relatives in surrounding agricultural communities or have a piece of land themselves not far from the city, which they cultivate to make ends meet. Tens of thousands have fled to these villages since the bombing began, bringing much of the city's economic and social life to a virtual standstill.

Nearby towns and villages, however, have also been hit by the bombing. The villages of Popovac and Cokot suffered significant damages during the April 24 raids, for example. Entire sections of Aleksinac, a mining town of 40,000 about 20 miles north of Nis, were ruined when bombs destroyed dozens of workers' homes April 4-5. Most of the main factories in town were also damaged or destroyed. They include EMPA, which produced lamps for street lights and employed more than 1,000 workers; FRAD, where hundreds of workers made filters for cars and trucks; and MORANA, the only garment factory there with 600 employees, most of them women. These plants were the major source of employment, besides farming, since the main coal mine nearby has been shut down for the last five years after a methane explosion underground destroyed much of the facility.

When Militant reporters went through town April 26, Aleksinac had the appearance of an abandoned city. Many of its residents have moved to surrounding villages with no access to a telephone, and their whereabouts are not known. "That's what farmers and workers face here," said Petrovic. "They are trying to isolate us and cut off communication among relatives and friends." He could not locate a friend in Aleksinac who was going to show Militant reporters around town.

Industry, infrastructure dismantled
Nis is typical of what is happening to working-class communities throughout Serbia. Industry and the infrastructure are being systematically dismantled. On April 12, NATO warplanes destroyed a heating plant on the edge of Krusevac, a city of 150,000 people in south-central Serbia. They then hit the region's biggest factory, the October 14 plant producing bulldozers, excavators, and other heavy machinery. What was left standing was destroyed in a second raid three days later.

"This was the biggest heavy-machinery plant in the Balkans," said Nebojsa Toskovic, the factory's deputy general manager, while taking reporters on a tour of the ruins. "Without machinery from this factory, the country will be unable to reconstruct all the bridges and everything else that has been destroyed by NATO."

Most of Serbia's oil refineries have now been destroyed or severely damaged, along with many oil storage depots and chemical plants, releasing toxic fumes in the environment. Lack of fuel has meant rationing of gasoline for private use. Bus service in the country has been mostly operating on schedule so far, but the number of lines is being reduced. Belgrade authorities, for example, have cut the number of public buses from 1,000 to 500 to save fuel.

According to official statistics released by the ministry of health of Serbia, 36 of the largest factories in the republic had been demolished as of April 23. In addition, 23 bridges, 33 hospitals and other health-care facilities, 6 regional and a number of local roads, 11 railway tracks, 4 civilian airports, parts of the power grid, TV transmitters, and telecommunications facilities have been destroyed. The human toll has surpassed 400 killed and 4,000 wounded, according to Serbia's health ministry. Yugoslavia's foreign minister Zivadin Jovanovic, however, put the number of those killed at 1,000 during an April 25 interview.

On April 26, the third and last remaining bridge over the Danube river connecting the two parts of Novi Sad, the capital of the Vojvodina region, was brought down by NATO warplanes after being hit for a third time. Its destruction cut off rail communication with the rest of central Europe. When Militant reporters visited that city three days earlier the bridge had been hit by seven missiles for the second time but still stood. The first attack had cut off the water supply to a section of the city with about 30,000 residents. During the second bombing - in mid-afternoon - workers were trying to repair the water main that ran on the bottom of the bridge. Air raid sirens made it possible for the workers to get off just in time and no one was killed. The army is now running part of a floating bridge pushed by two navy boats to transport people back and forth between the two banks.

"These are no military targets," said Dusan, a university student in Novi Sad who showed Militant reporters around, asking that his last name not be used. "The army is already preparing floating bridges to transport troops and tanks over rivers. These hits are aimed at demoralizing people and making our daily lives harder and harder."

Dusan and other young people and trade unionists interviewed by Militant reporters spoke with indignation at the language used by CNN and other big-business media to describe civilian casualties in raids on alleged military targets. "They call it `collateral damagé," Dusan said, "as if human beings don't count."

He referred in particular to the bombing of a train near Grdelica, southern Serbia, April 12, when 12 passengers were killed. Another 17 are missing from that assault, presumably incinerated from the cluster bombs that were used.

The latest example of such `collateral damagé was the bombing of an agricultural community in Surduljica, 200 miles south of Belgrade, near the border with Bulgaria. The town was struck in the afternoon of April 27. At least 50 houses were destroyed and another 600 damaged and at least 17 people died. Associated Press reporters who on the scene said many bodies were so badly dismembered that they could not be identified. In this case again NATO officials claimed their planes carried out a successful attack on nearby barracks, which had been vacated by the Yugoslav army, as all such facilities have been prior to being bombed. "We cannot exclude harm to civilians or civilian property during our air operations over Yugoslavia," a NATO statement on the incident said.

Bombing of Radio-TV Serbia
One of the assaults that has aroused much discussion and debate here was the bombing of Radio TV Serbia (RTS), the main state-run radio and television network in Yugoslavia. The windows of the hotel room where these reporters slept shook a little after 2 a.m. on April 23 from the strong explosions less than half a mile away, waking up most people in the city's center. RTS had been bombed, after weeks of speculation in the big-business media in the United States and other countries on whether Washington would carry this out.

A second round of bombs blew up other parts of the RTS building half an hour later. About 150 people were working there at the time. As of April 28, nine bodies had been pulled from the rubble and identified. Another seven people who were working that fatal night are still missing, and are presumed dead. Eighteen employees, most of them technicians, were hospitalized from serious injuries. Nationwide TV and radio programs went off the air the moment the bombs hit. A few hours later they resumed broadcasting from an undisclosed location. Within a couple of days, though, NATO missiles destroyed the main TV transmitter on the outskirts of Belgrade, silencing RTS broadcasts around the country.

CNN TV crews in Belgrade had told everyone they got a tip three days earlier that RTS would be bombed soon. They pulled out of that building. State authorities here had granted CNN rights to use space in the RTS building and utilize their equipment for broadcasting. In response, the Yugoslav ministry of information called on all foreign reporters on April 20 to go over to the RTS building and stay there for a while, making that known around the world, as a way to forestall the attack. Many of these journalists went. The CNN crews declined the offer. But after a couple of days passed most people these reporters spoke to assumed this was only a threat to pressure the Milosevic regime that would not be carried out. Since the RTS was bombed most people expect a substantial escalation of the NATO assault.

The mood in the streets of Belgrade morning of April 23 was sullen. But bombing the main TV station smack at the center of Belgrade and killing people working there has aroused more anger and determination to stand up to this brutal assault. This is coming not just from supporters of the regime but from people who don't give much credence to what is reported on state media here.

"This is a crime," said Branislav Canak, president of Nezavisnost. He had worked himself as a journalist until the early 1990s, when he quit after refusing to accept demands from the authorities to craft his articles in a way that advanced Serb nationalist propaganda and justified Belgrade's war first with Croatia and then Bosnia.

"It's appalling," said Oliver Kokic, a university student, on the scene of the bombing the morning of April 23. "More of us will fight against NATO now." Kokic had participated in the 1996-97 protests that forced the Milosevic regime to reverse its anti-democratic annulment of municipal election results that brought victories to an opposition coalition in 15 of Serbia's 19 largest cities.

About 10,000 people demonstrated in central Belgrade April 24 to condemn the bombing, many laying flowers and lighting candles at the ruins of the RTS building. The action took the place of the daily rock concert at the nearby Republic square, where thousands of people usually turn out to show their opposition to the NATO assault.

At the same time, a number of people, including RTS employees, blame the government in Belgrade for not having acted to minimize the loss of life after the initial public warnings by CNN that the RTS building would be bombed. "Dozens of people I know at RTS believe the government knew and did not tell workers," said a student, whose father is an RTS technician, and asked that his name not be disclosed. One of his relatives was killed in the bombing. "They had already organized an alternative site for broadcasting. Every other government building has been vacated prior to the bombing. It had began to look as if there was some kind of deal between the imperialists and their servants here. The regime needed some victims. The problem is that this can't be dealt with until the bombing ends. Anything to pursue this now will be treated as treason."

Draskovic expelled from government
Following the RTS bombing, Belgrade took more direct control of local and regional TV stations to get its message around. The move was criticized by Yugoslavia's deputy prime minister Vuk Draskovic, head of the Serbian Renewal Movement. Draskovic had been a prominent spokesperson of the opposition coalition in the 1996-97 protests. At the same time, he has been an outspoken advocate of Serb nationalism and a supporter of Belgrade's crackdown on demands for self- determination of Albanians in Kosova. Draskovic and his party joined Milosevic's governing coalition last year, in the same cabinet with Vojislav Seselj's Serbian Radical Party that many people here describe as fascist.

Draskovic also told SKY TV April 26 that he supported calls for a United Nations "peacekeeping" force in Kosova and urged the government to admit it cannot defeat NATO. Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia and its main coalition partner, the Party of the Yugoslav Left headed by the president's wife Mirjana Markovic, have endorsed calls for an "international presence" in Kosova but oppose armed troops or monitors from countries participating in the NATO assault. The rightist Serbian Radical Party has been even more vocal in opposing any foreign troops in Kosova and denounced "careerist politicians," a vague reference to Draskovic's statements.

On April 28, Draskovic was expelled from the ruling coalition, a sign of weakening of the regime. Leaders of the Students Union of Yugoslavia - the main organization that led the student protests against the antidemocratic measures of the Milosevic administration in 1996-97 - told the Militant that this development may broaden the space a little to organize political activities; a space that has been narrowed considerably as a result of the U.S.-NATO assault.

"I don't like Draskovic, he's a nationalist," said Stanimir, a leader of the Students Union of Yugoslavia in Belgrade. "But if he goes over to the opposition now we can utilize this to be able to win space for our antiwar ideas and for democratic rights. We may have some openings to use air time in the Studio B/TV station that belongs to Draskovic's party."

Such expectations are far-fetched, however, especially since these student activists oppose politically the course of the Serbian Renewal Movement. "I don't think NATO or UN troops will be sent to Kosova to bring peace," said Stanimir, referring to Draskovic's call for deploying a UN force in Kosova. "I'm afraid that if UN troops were sent it would be to grant a license to Milosevic, part of a deal with his regime, to continue his dictatorial policies in Kosova. So I have a problem with UN troops going to Kosova."

Working class is NATO's target
The search for space to carry out a range of political activities is vital. As scores of trade unionists, students, and other young people have explained to Militant reporters over two weeks, the NATO bombing has given Milosevic a freer hand to narrow democratic rights and reverse what has been accomplished by working people since the opening of this decade - from the 1992-93 protests against the war in Croatia and Bosnia to the 1996-97 mobilizations for democratic rights in Serbia.

"When there is a war, many normal activities are suspended," said Bojko Vucic, during an April 27 interview in Nis. "But the regime has used the war emergency measures to isolate opponents and reverse what we've accomplished for the last decade. Tell workers around the world to demand an immediate end to the bombing. We are the target."

Nezavisnost, which has 20,000 members among the more than 80,000 wage workers in Nis, has had to suspend most of its public activities, we were told. These have included militant strikes and demonstrations - the broadest in 1995 - for better wages and working conditions, lower rents and utility rates, and cuts on taxes on wages. On March 10 of this year, the union organized a march by hundreds in Nis and then 12 of its members marched on foot to Belgrade to demand the government come up with months of unpaid wages in state-owned plants.

Since 1991, when the Milosevic regime went to war with its rivals in neighboring Yugoslav republics, "Nezavisnost has opposed the war as well as the breakup of Yugoslavia pushed by a variety of nationalists in Belgrade, Zagreb, or Sarajevo," Vucic said. "We also condemned and spoke out against all the bad policies of the regime, including the revocation of autonomy in Kosova. That went against everything Yugoslavia and the revolution was for."

Vucic was referring to the 1945 revolution, brought to victory by the Partisans, led by the Communist Party whose central leader was Josip Broz (Tito). The Partisans united workers and peasants of all nationalities behind the struggle against the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia during World War II. Practicing a program that called for equality and respect of all nationalities and religious beliefs, and that opposed chauvinism and domination of one nation by another, was a major factor in the victory of the antifascist movement. Working people then turned the victory against the Nazis into a social revolution - abolishing capitalist property relations and establishing a workers state, even though it was deformed at birth because of domination by Tito's Stalinist misleadership.

In the next three decades, Albanians and others were recognized as oppressed nationalities and granted special rights that began to narrow discrimination. These included recognition of Albanian as one of Yugoslavia's official languages, the opening of the University of Pristina in 1970 where all courses were taught in Albanian, and the granting of autonomy to Kosova in 1974.

As a privileged bureaucratic caste crystallized its hold on power under Tito's Stalinist misrule, however, these initial gains of the revolution began to be undermined. Despite initial affirmative action measures to close the gap in development between different republics of Yugoslavia, Kosova remained far behind compared to other regions. The opening of the country's economy to foreign investment and loans from imperialist bank trusts as far back as the mid- 1950s, made Yugoslav toilers vulnerable to the ups and downs of the world capitalist market. Subsequent austerity measures demanded by the IMF as a condition for further loans, combined with the anti-working-class methods of planning and management by the Tito regime, produced an economic crisis that affected disproportionately less developed areas like Kosova. Joblessness there in the mid-1980s, for example, jumped to 50 percent, compared to 14 percent across Yugoslavia. These conditions fueled the struggle for self- determination.

At the end of the 1980s, miners and other working people in Kosova were at the forefront of strikes and demonstrations against austerity and for national rights. At that point, the Milosevic regime justified its counterattack on working people through nationalist tirades against Albanians, claiming "they breed too much" and are responsible for unsubstantiated crimes against all Serbs in Kosova. Belgrade, Zagreb, and other rival regimes in the former Yugoslavia fought to maintain or enlarge land and economic resources under their control to keep their parasitic existence and bourgeois way of living. Belgrade revoked Kosova's autonomy in 1989. In the next couple of years, schools offering courses in the Albanian language, along with TV and radio programs in Albanian, were shut down. By 1992, the majority of Albanians - who comprised 90 percent of Kosova's population of 2.1 million - were fired from their jobs in hospitals, government administration, and much of industry. These measures have led to the current explosion.

Activities to counter the nationalism of the regime, boosted during the protest movement two years ago, have now been curtailed Vucic said. Now permits are required to organize any public action, including protests against the NATO bombings. Only the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia and the Yugoslav Left have been granted such blanket licenses, we were told. The Confederation of All Trade Unions of Yugoslavia, which is under the control of the ruling coalition, has also been permitted to call its own actions over the last month. The Students Union of Yugoslavia and Nezavisnost report they've been denied permits to organize their own protests against the NATO assault.

Another example of the setbacks the U.S.-led attack is inflicting on working people is the women's committee of the independent trade union at the Zastava complex in Kragujevac - one of the largest auto assembly plants in the Balkans and the only one of its kind in Yugoslavia. The group has ended its activities there for now, said Slavija Vecetic, head of that committee and member of the metalworkers union. The plant was destroyed by repeated bombings beginning April 9. "We felt we were going to take off after activities our committee organized on March 8, International Women's Day," said Vecetic. "We wanted to make living and working conditions for women better and fight against discrimination." About 35 percent of the workforce of 38,000 were women. "Women always got the lower-paying jobs and were laid off in disproportionate numbers. But the imperialist aggression came too soon after that and all our activities came to a grinding halt."

In Nis, where Nezavisnost is stronger, the union is organizing its members to help clean up the rubble from ruined factories and other facilities and distribute humanitarian aid to workers. "For the first time in half a century we have some families who don't have anything to eat," Vucic said.

Economic crisis accelerates
In Nis alone, more than 10,000 workers have lost their jobs due to bombing, increasing joblessness from 40,000 to 50,000 among the city's 80,000 wage workers in the last five weeks. The large level of unemployment prior to the imperialist air raids was due to the decades of bureaucratic mismanagement of the economy, exacerbated by the impact of depression conditions of world capitalism and the economic sanctions on Yugoslavia for the last eight years imposed on Washington's initiative.

Throughout Yugoslavia, half a million workers lost their jobs since March 24, according to official figures, bringing unemployment to more than 70 percent. About 55 percent of the country's workforce was without jobs prior to the bombing.

The government now says that 2 million people in a population of 11.2 million have been left without any income whatsoever, in the last five weeks.

A ban on fuel shipments to Yugoslavia approved by the European Union April 26 will further exacerbate the difficulties working people here face. Washington and top NATO officials have actually demanded a naval blockade of Yugoslavia to prevent oil shipments to the republic from being unloaded. NATO military planners are preparing warships in the Adriatic to block such shipments by stopping and searching vessels headed for Yugoslavia under the threat of force. Some NATO members have expressed reservations about the move, however, so this plan has not been put into effect yet.

This step have provoked an angry reaction from Moscow, which has vigorously opposed the NATO bombing but has not taken any steps to defend Yugoslavia militarily. "Decisions on the imposition of sanctions and an embargo can be taken only by the UN Security Council," stated Russia's foreign minister Igor Ivanov in an April 27 news conference, following the visit to Moscow by U.S. deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott. Such decisions by NATO "have no international legal validity for Russia," he added.

Ivanov warned that any attempt by NATO warships to stop a Russian tanker now headed for Yugoslavia would be tantamount to a declaration of war. Yugoslavia's chief oil supplier, the Russian Gazprom, has announced that deliveries will proceed as usual. The Chinese government of president Jiang Zemin, increasingly in conflict with Washington over U.S. plans to deploy an anti-ballistic missile defense system throughout southeast Asia, has also strongly condemned the NATO bombing and indicated it will vote against any new proposed sanctions or an oil embargo at the United Nations.

NATO's war summit
The U.S.-led war on Yugoslavia was at the center of NATO's 50th anniversary summit, held in Washington, D.C., April 23- 25. At that meeting, Washington registered its progress in consolidating its place as the number one economic and military power in Europe - clearly established on the blood and bones of the Yugoslav people over the last decade.

The summit approved a new "strategic concept" for NATO, giving the reactionary Atlantic alliance formal authority to operate beyond the territory of its 19 member states. The document says NATO has to tackle "uncertainty and instability in and around the Euro-Atlantic area and the possibility of regional crises at the periphery of the alliance, which could evolve rapidly."

This codifies what Washington and its imperialist allies are already carrying out in Yugoslavia: using military might to lay the foundations for reestablishing capitalist social relations throughout the formerly federated Yugoslav workers state and tightening the imperialist encirclement of Russia, with the same goal in mind there.

The document did not stipulate that NATO would operate "under the authority of the [UN] Security Council." That phrase, according to an article in the April 26 International Herald Tribune, had been pushed by the government of France "but rejected by allies who feared that it would give Russia a veto over NATO actions."

Behind the fanfare about unity, this fact pointed to the intensifying competition among the imperialist powers on how to divide domination of the world's markets and wealth produced by toilers around the globe.

"If there were any real victories coming out of the Yugoslav engagement so far, they were less over the Milosevic regime than for the national strategic goals of each of NATO's central component countries in Europe," read the Herald Tribune article.

"France, which continues officially to stand outside the alliance's military wing, scored notable points. Its strong military participation served to legitimize its stance at NATO's edge, demonstrating it could be a loyal ally while taking an independent, even provocative stance on other issues...."

French president Jacques "Chirac's proposal that the EU - `naturally' he said Friday - take over the administration of Kosovo after the war is meant to single France out as the driving political-military force in Europe. And its efforts to limit the use of unilateral U.S. power through multilateral bodies like the UN Security Council can now appear more like sincere concerns than eternally crabby anti-Americanism."

The British government has grabbed firmly on the coattails of Washington in the Yugoslav crisis, with its prime minister Anthony Blair leading the warmongering propaganda. "Victory is the only exit strategy I will consider," declared Blair.

All this is not being lost on working people and youth in Yugoslavia. "This war is not about democracy or defending Albanians from `ethnic cleansing'," said Dusan, the student in Novi Sad. "It's about NATO staying ahead of the UN as the power that calls the shots in Europe."

While a ground invasion of Kosova was not decided as an immediate option, steps taken at the NATO summit and subsequently indicate that Washington is preparing for such an eventuality. The heads of state present at the NATO meeting granted Gen. Wesley Clark, the commander of the imperialist alliance, greater leeway to expand bombing targets in Yugoslavia. "The previous system, which required approval from NATO ambassadors of nightly target lists, proved too cumbersome," the April 26 Herald Tribune read.

Washington and London announced troop reinforcements in Albania that will bring NATO forces there to 20,000, supposedly to back the two dozen Apache attack helicopters already in that country. Most of the U.S. troops come from elite units such as the 82nd Airborne Division. The Pentagon also called up 33,000 reservists to active military duty for further reinforcements of U.S. forces in the Balkans. This is the largest nonvoluntary call-up of reserves since 240,000 were drafted in the buildup to the 1991 U.S.-led assault on Iraq. As part of its escalation of the war, Washington is lining up the "frontline states" surrounding Yugoslavia behind its goals. Clinton said NATO would defend any of these countries from possible retaliation from Belgrade, which are allowing use of their air space or military facilities for NATO air raids on Yugoslavia. These countries include Hungary, which joined NATO March 12. Other so-called frontline states are Albania - where the parliament has given NATO forces full access to ports, airports, bases, and air space - Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, and Slovenia. The governments of all of them are seeking to join NATO in exchange for alleged economic payoffs.

Washington is also attempting to engineer a break-off of Montenegro from the federation with Serbia. "NATO will respond to any actions by Serbia against its neighbors as a result of NATO presence on their territory during the crisis," Clinton said, "or to any move to undermine the democratically elected government of Montenegro."

Montenegro: a powder keg
Clinton was referring to the government of Montenegro's premier Milo Jukanovic, whose coalition won parliamentary elections against the pro-Milosevic Socialist Peoples' Party last year. Jukanovic and other Socialist Party officials split from the SP, forming the Social Democratic Party that advocates a more rapid opening of Montenegro's economy to imperialist bank trusts and collaboration with the "West."

Many in the Jukanovic administration favor declaring independence for the republic of 650,000 people. A split from Yugoslavia would deny Belgrade its only access to the Adriatic and tighten the encirclement of Serbia.

To counter such a move, the Milosevic regime recently replaced the entire army command in Montenegro with loyalist generals who then demanded that the republic's administration place its police forces under the command of the federal army. The Jukanovic regime categorically refused.

During a visit to Montenegro April 24-25, Militant reporters witnessed an atmosphere that is calm on the surface but is a thin cover for a powder keg waiting to explode. Units of the federal army, with heavy weaponry, could be seen being deployed along the mountainous roads leading to Podgorica, Montenegro's capital, and along the coast. Montenegro's police are also everywhere, guarding almost every street corner in town after town and the checkpoints leading into the urban areas. They form two more-or-less hostile armed forces facing each other.

"We could easily face a situation of civil war," said Dragan Duric, officer of international relations of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Montenegro, in an April 24 interview at the union's offices. Unlike in Serbia, there is only one union federation in Montenegro.

On the initiative of the union federation, Montenegro's parliament adopted a unity statement April 2, signed by all parties represented there, calling for the immediate cessation of the NATO bombing and for "civil peace" in the republic.

The political confrontation is unfolding on a daily basis, however. The pro-Milosevic party, which got 40 percent of the vote in the last elections but could not muster a majority in parliament, along with other forces opposed to separation from Yugoslavia organize regular large demonstrations of up to 20,000 people in Podgorica. Its officials, along with their masters in Belgrade, often accuse the Jukanovic administration of being pro-imperialist.

To appease the ruling coalition, Washington has spared Montenegro's industrial facilities from bombing so far. Oil shortages are not visible there and cigarette supplies are plentiful, serving as flourishing point for the black market into Serbia. Most of the NATO assaults have concentrated on military barracks so far and no civilians have been reportedly killed there.

On April 17, dock workers at the port of Barr and other union members in the area organized a rally of 2,000 to condemn the NATO bombing. At that meeting, union officials and others asked the Yugoslav navy to stop firing anti- aircraft volleys at overflying NATO warplanes from the port, the only commercial port of Yugoslavia. "We want to avoid provoking a NATO assault on the port," Zoran Ostolic, an officer of the dock workers union in Barr said. The volleys have no chance of hitting the NATO jets, which fly three times higher than the Yugoslav anti-aircraft shots can reach. The Yugoslav navy supposedly complied and has concentrated its anti-aircraft fire from the smaller port of Herzeg Nova near the border with Croatia.

For many other working people, however, seeing the anti- aircraft volleys is a boost in morale. On the night of April 25, Militant reporters heard loud cheers and applause from several apartment buildings in Podgorica as the sky was lit with repeated shots by the Yugoslav navy and land-based anti- aircraft units.

Likewise, opinions on the question of separation from Yugoslavia are divided among working people, though no one among those we interviewed supported trying to resolve the issue until the NATO assaults end. "I am against Milosevic and the policies of his regime 100 percent. And I think we may be better off without the alliance with Serbia," said Aleksander Dabovic, a sailor who works on the ferry from Barr to Italy. "But if there is a ground assault on Kosova I can assure you the overwhelming majority of us will fight to the end to defeat NATO."

Aleksander's girlfriend, Lidija, a shipping clerk at the port of Barr, said she would join the Yugoslav army to fight if Yugoslavia were attacked by land. "But I am for sticking with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," she said.

Montenegro is a mix of Serbs, Albanians, Muslims from Bosnia, and other nationalities. Sixty-three percent of its citizens consider themselves Montenegrins, though they all speak the same language as in Serbia, Serbo-Croatian, according to the latest official census. About 10 percent are Serbs, 7 percent Albanians, and 15 percent Muslims.

Kosovar Albanians flood Ulcinj
The Albanian population is rapidly swelling, however, as tens of thousands of Albanians, forced out of Kosova, continue to arrive here. More than 70,000 Kosovar Albanians are now in Montenegro, with about half having flooded the southern sea town of Ulcinj, where the local population of 25,000 was already 80 percent Albanian. Most live in private houses, but several thousand are housed at a seaside camp and at the town's bus station and three mosques.

Keko Gamovic, local president of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions, himself of Albanian origin, is also now the head of the local unit of the Red Cross. "The union is taking responsibility for housing of refugees and for their relocation elsewhere." Unlike camps in Macedonia, Albanians from Kosova coming here have freedom of movement and do not need special police permits to move around. A few thousand have left for Albania over the mountainous range that's the border with Montenegro. But most are trying to settle in Ulcinj.

About 1,200 are housed in tents at a seaside campsite. Opinions among those interviewed there April 25 were divided on the NATO assault. Everyone told stories of how Serb paramilitary forces, in collaboration with special police units, are organizing the clearing out of villages and towns in Kosova.

"NATO and the European Union are obligated to rebuild the infrastructure of Kosova," said Cosmet Arifaj, an electrician from the village of Istock who had been in the camp for 10 days. "The ethnic cleansing wouldn't have happened to this massive scale without the bombing."

He and another farmer who had a similar opinion were interrupted repeatedly by two Albanian teachers who were part of organizing security at the camp. They spoke vociferously for the NATO bombing and a ground invasion. "You can't blame NATO for the barbarian attacks on us!" exclaimed Mustaf Jocai, also from Istock. "It's the fault of the Serbs."

At one of the mosques in town, there was a calmer atmosphere for civil discussion. Several young people there expressed support for the NATO bombing and sympathy for the Kosova Liberation Army. Halim Mecini, however, who owned a small auto parts shop in Serbjica, Kosova, countered: "NATO should stop the bombing. We don't want a war but a peaceful solution."

As Kosovar Albanians continue to be expelled from Kosova, they add a major element to the already high tension in Montenegro. On April 18, a unit of the federal Yugoslav army shot and killed four Albanians from a column of several dozen who had crossed the border near the town of Rozaje in Montenegro. The army claimed several were armed and opened fire. But other witnesses, including Montenegrins, said the claim was shaky since those killed including a 13-year-old boy and a 73-year-old woman.

Debate on national self-determination
In the middle of this situation, attitudes on national self-determination for the Albanian nationality in Kosova remain a dividing line throughout Yugoslavia.

During the trip to Ulcinj, the two Serbian students who accompanied Militant reporters and helped with translation were on opposite sides. One was a member of the Students Federation, the other student group besides the Students Union that helped organize the 1996-97 protests. He was a nationalist buying into Belgrade's propaganda about Albanians, and became physically ill at Ulcinj. "I can't stand being among so many terrorists," he declared. The other, a member of the Students Union, said the Milosevic regime was to blame for the explosion in Kosova by revoking autonomy in 1989. Both asked to remain anonymous.

Dusan and Bojan, two members of the Students Union of Yugoslavia in Novi Sad who asked that their last names not be used, explained how they had carried out antiwar canvassing last year to win people to oppose Belgrade's regime in Kosova. Both said that two years ago they had illusions themselves, like many fellow Albanians today, in imperialist powers. "In 1997 some of us carried U.S. and European flags," said Bojan. "Now we are burning them." Neither of them, however, have come to the point of supporting independence for Kosova.

Duci Petrovic in Nis went the furthest of all. "After everything that's happened, Albanian people in Kosova must decide their future. And there is no other way for us to wage our struggle both against NATO and Milosevic without that," he said.

 
 
 
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