FROM BELGRADE, SERBIACAPITAL OF THE FREE WORLD Apr. 18, 1999; 3:00PM GMT - DAY 26 HEADLINES Somewhere in Serbia 1. Angry Skies Over Serbia Pancevo 2. Huge Toxic Cloud Unleashed by NATO Bombs Washington 3. Senator Inhofe Says Clinton's Illegal Troop Deployment Is Already Under Way India 4. Bharatiya Janata Party Condemns NATO Air Strikes Czech Rep. 5. A TiM Reader: Czech Polls Also Rigged?; Sounds of NATO Aircraft Are Not Bulgaria 6. WSO President: "I Cannot Be Indifferent" -------------------- 1. Angry Skies Over Serbia SOMEWHERE IN SERBIA, Apr. 17 - "What is the weather like where you are?", a young doctor asked a friend located in a town some 100 miles away. "Unfortunately, it's clear and sunny today." "Oh, shucks!" In most places around the globe, people cheer the "nice, sunny" days. In Serbia, they dread them. Because the deadly payloads which the NATO has been dropping on the country for 26 days now are likely to intensify in clear weather. Last night was a clear night. And it was one of the most devastating in the northern part of Serbia. The town in which this writer spent the night was in the thick of things. The NATO "concert" started at about 8:40PM on April 17. At least that's when the air raid sirens went off. As the night progressed, the sounds of war symphony coupled with human agony grew louder until the final crescendo in the early morning hours. All the while, your editor stayed on-line, writing the Day 25, Update 1 TiM GW Bulletin, and occasionally answering the reports which we have been receiving daily from TiM's eyes and ears all over Serbia, and from around the world. Here's an excerpt from one such exchange with a journalist friend in New York, which took place "live" last night at 9:30PM GMT:
Before that, however, they continue to bite everything in sight. Ten minutes after the above message was sent, a huge explosion shook the neighborhood. For a few seconds, the sky lit up as if it were the Fourth of July fireworks. Instead, another million dollar NATO/Pentagon missiles was blown to smithereens before reaching its designated target. Which appeared to be a nearby bridge (also see a photo of AAA fire over Belgrade). At about the same time, TiM's correspondents from Novi Sad reported that the second largest city in Serbia was once again under heavy attack. And again, the Novi Sad refinery, which has not been active for eight years (!), was among the NATO targets. The refinery ceased its production when the oil pipeline which runs through Croatia was cut off in 1991, when the civil war in the former Yugoslavia broke out. A few minutes later, a deep thud shook the ground in our neighborhood. In the morning, we found out that some empty barracks, a couple of miles away, which had been hit before, were hit again last night. Both that and the Novi Sad example, illustrate the pointlessness and ineffectiveness of NATO's bombings. They scare the local civilians out of their wits, night after night (and sometimes in broad daylight, too), without achieving any military objectives whatsoever. (continued in the next story ) 2. Huge Toxic Cloud Unleashed by NATO Bombs PANCEVO, Apr. 18 - Last night's attack against a Pancevo chemical factory was a case in point (see above). The NATO bombs caused huge fires which released toxic fumes into the atmosphere. This afternoon, as your editor returned to Belgrade, a plume of black smoke was visible from 50 miles away. And even now, at about 3PM GMT, the black toxic cloud is clearly visible over the northeastern Belgrade suburbs from this writer's hotel. For your information, Pancevo is about as close to downtown Belgrade as Central Park is to the World Trade Towers in New York. Here's an excerpt from an e-mail which we've just received from two professors of the Belgrade University:
M. Sci. Dmitar Lakusic, President, Ass. Prof. Dr. Radoje Lausevic, Secretary, Serbian Ecological Society, Univ. Belgrade, Faculty of Biology. --- * TiM Ed.: - The Pancevo chemical factory was first hit on Apr. 15, the day your editor arrived in Belgrade. "Unfortunately but unavoidably a large number of people were injured and intoxicated," said Dr. Slobodan Tresac, Director General of HIP PETROHEMIJA, in a press release. "At this moment we do not know the exact number of intoxicated and injured civilians who were evacuated." Due to the power failure and utilities and auxiliary fluids interruption a large quantity of combustible, explosive and toxic matters remained trapped in the equipment, installations and tanks. "It will take a lot of time to drain and evacuate all those matters from the plants before the plants could be considered safe for a wide surrounding area," Dr. Tresac said.
--- TiM Ed.: And the people who committed this crime, not only against humanity, but against nature - Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroeder, Madeleine Albright, Sam Berger, William Cohen, Wesley Clark, and other NATO leaders, have the nerve to talk about "genocide?" As if echoing our condemnation, a powerful thunderstorm is rolling right now over Belgrade. Fortunately, the wind is from the southwest, thus driving the toxic cloud away from the city. What NATO has attempted to do, God is evidently undoing. ------------ 3. Senator Inhofe Says Clinton's Illegal Troop Deployment Is Already Under Way WASHINGTON, Apr. 16 - Senator James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, said today that the deployment of ground troops into the Yugoslavian "combat zone" has already begun, despite denials from the White House that the administration is even contemplating such a move. "For all practical purposes, the debate about ground troops is over," Inhofe said. "As I predicted months ago, and as I warned at the outset of the air campaign, President Clinton has always wanted U.S. ground troops in Kosovo, they always knew that air power alone would not work, and now the initial deployments are going on as we speak. "The announcements this week, that 4,800 soldiers are being dispatched to staging areas in Albania to support our Apache helicopters and that up to 33,000 guard and reserve troops are being activated, tell the story. "Why are all these 4800 troops going in?," Sen. Inhofe asks. "Not simply to fly the Apaches that are being deployed. A typical Apache battalion numbers fewer than 400 troops. So why are the other 4,000 and more troops there? Because this is a dangerous environment, with no support infrastructure, that poses great risk to our forces on the ground. Indeed, the President this week declared Albania and other areas surrounding Kosovo as an official combat zone for military pay purposes. And I am convinced this is only the beginning." "In my judgment, this deployment is not only a mistake, it a clear violation of the law. The Roberts Amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill specifically prohibits such troop deployments to Albania and other named countries in the Balkans before a series of conditions are met and notices are given to the Congress. This provision has not been fully complied with regarding the troop transfers with the Apaches." Inhofe emphasized that this troop deployment and the combat zone designation were ordered this week directly by the President in his role as Commander-in-Chief. These actions were taken during the very week the President maintained in public statements that he has "no intention" to deploy ground troops. Inhofe said this kind of deception and dishonesty continues to undermine the Presidents credibility with the public and with other countries throughout the world. Inhofe expressed concern for the safety and welfare of U.S. troops and emphasized that his statements today were motivated solely by a concern that the deployments to the Yugoslavian theater would serve to weaken the militarys ability to defend America and Americas truly vital security interests around the world. (http://www.senate.gov/%7Einhofe/pr041699.html) ---------------- 4. Bharatiya Janata Party Condemns NATO Air Strikes BELGRADE, Apr. 18 - We've just received a resolution passed by the National Executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party of India which has joined a worldwide condemnation of NATO's attack on Serbia. Here is the text of the resolution:
------------ 5. A TiM Reader: Czech Polls Also Rigged? Sounds of NATO Aircraft Are Not CZECH REPUBLIC, Apr 15 - The last 26 days have revealed a tremendous amount of deception perpetrated by Washington's "lie and deny" PR factory and its servants in the establishment media. Based on a report we've just received from a TiM correspondent in the Czech Republic, the media in this new NATO country are quick studies of Washington's dirty tricks. On Apr. 15, Czech TV hosted a debate about NATO's attack on Yugoslavia. Most of the people who participated in the discussion were critical of NATO's bombing, our correspondent says. Yet when a public phone poll was taken, the station announced that 3,662 callers were for the aggression, while 3,585 were again. An "amazing" coincidence , isn't it, with the alleged poll results in the U.S. offered by the establishment media? But the most interesting aspect of the "voting" was that the total number of callers equalled or exceeded the capacity of the phone lines, our observant Czech observer notes. "In my own private experience," he adds, about 60% of the Czech citizens are against the bombing; 30% are for it; and 10% have no opinion. But while the Czech polls may also be rigged, the sounds of NATO aircraft are real. "Every day, between 11PM and 1AM (local time), I hear overhead the sounds of the flying murderer-bombers enroute to Yugoslavia," our correspondent reports. --- TiM Ed.: Guess one needs not wonder how this Czech citizen feels about that ------------ 6. WSO President: "I Cannot Be Indifferent" BULGARIA, Apr. 18 - We received the following letter through an anti-NATO listserv from Dr. Vladimir Russev, president of World Security Organization, an international non-governmental organization:
Dr. Vladimir Russev, president of World Security Organization, an international non-governmental organization (http://members.spree.com/wso2000 ). Sounds of air raid siren ... and of bombs in Belgrade Also, check out... Truth in Media Statement on Kosovo Crisis, "Wither Dayton, Sprout New War?", "On the Brink of Madness", "Tragic Deja Vu's," "Seven U.S. Senators Suggest Ouster of Milosevic", "Biting the Hand That Feeds You", "A Balkan Affairs Potpourri", "Put the U.N. Justice on Trial", "International Justice 'Progresses' from Kidnapping to Murder", "Milosevic: 'A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery'...", "Kosovo Lie Allowed to Stand", "New World Order's Inquisition in Bosnia", "Kosovo Heating Up", "Decani Monastery Under Siege?", "Murder on Wall Street", "Kosovo: 'Bosnia II', Serbia's Aztlan", "What If the Shoe Were on the Other Foot?", "Green Interstate - Not Worth American Lives", "An American Hero or Actor of the Year?" (A June '95 TiM story) and/or "Clinton arme secrètement les musulmans bosniaques" Or Djurdjevic's WASHINGTON TIMES columns: "Chinese Dragon Wagging Macedonian Tail," "An Ugly Double Standard in Kosovo Conflict?", "NATO's Bullyboys", "Kosovo: Why Are We Involved?", and "Ginning Up Another Crisis" Or Djurdjevic's NEW DAWN magazine columns: "Washington's Crisis Factory," and "A New Iron Curtain Over Europe" |