HEADLINES

Puerto Rico           1. NATO's War on Serbia Claims First Victim in Puerto Rico

Phoenix                   2. An American Soldier Says NATO Leaders, Pilots Must

                                   Be Tried for Murder

London                    3. Britain's Green Party Joins War Protests

Phoenix                   4. A Hungarian Refugee Who Fell in Love with Serbia

                                   Contradicts Hate-mongering General

Pljevlja                   5. A Letter from Montenegrin High School Students

Dublin                     6. Trinity College Students Support NATO's War, But Not

                                   If Ireland Were to Get Involved

Novi Sad                 7. Attacking the "Capitol Hill" of Novi Sad

--------------------

1. NATO's War on Serbia Claims First Victim in Puerto Rico

PUERTO RICO, Apr. 21 - NATO's war on Serbia has claimed its first victim in Puerto Rico, the Santa Cruz Sentinel (a Hearst publication) reported on Apr. 21, citing "wire services." The U.S. Navy on Tuesday began investigating what went wrong when two jets on a Kosovo training mission accidentally fired 500-pound bombs that killed a civilian security guard on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

Four other people suffered minor injuries during Monday night's incident, which renewed an outcry against the U.S. military presence on Vieques, 50 miles east of San Juan and site of some of Puerto Rico's best beaches and fishing grounds.

Gov. Pedro Rossello wrote to President Clinton asking for an immediate end to the bombing exercises, and Vieques mayor Manuela Santiago called on the Navy to "cease and desist from these practices that have so damaged our island."

--------------

2. An American Soldier Says NATO Leaders, Pilots Must Be Tried for Murder

PHOENIX, Apr. 22 - An active duty American soldier is bristling over NATO's bombing of Serbia, especially against civilian targets. In a letter sent to us on Apr. 16, he said both the NATO leaders and the pilots must be tried for murder. Here is his letter which also requested anonymity for obvious reasons:

"I just read your report on the bombing of Kosovo refugees. Your report simply confirms what everyone knows but refuses to admit, that this action against Yugoslavia is criminal.

General Clark says that the pilot made several passes and was sure the target was military. I guess the pilot thought the military was so badly damaged by the bombing that they had to start using red farming tractors.

Besides the leaders who staged this farce to start a war, the pilot must be tried for murder.

As for the train, the bomb that hit the second car and stopped the train was the best of luck. Had the second car not taken the explosion, the bridge would have been down and the entire train would have gone down into the gorge.

As for the pilots not seeing a train heading toward the bridge they were bombing, either they are liars and mass murderers or they are blind.

Please do not publish my name as I am an active duty US soldier and would face severe criminal prosecution for telling the truth."

Name withheld (but known to TiM)

--------------

3. Britain's Green Party Joins War Protests

LONDON, Apr. 20 - Responding to a TiM story about near mutiny on the British warship "Invincible," reported by a former British soldier, Terry Allen (see Day 27, Update 1, Item 7, Apr. 19), the defense spokesman for Britain's fourth largest political party sent us the following note:

"Terry Allen isn't the only example of Brits wanting to call it quits. In fact, England's fourth largest political party (The Green Party) has been trying to point out the illegality, immorality and blatant hypocrisy of this war since the day the bombing started. It's one of a number of uphill struggles in which we exhaust ourselves, but we won't quit THIS particular battle, because as someone said, if you're not doing the right thing, then the chances are you're doing the wrong thing...

Yours for a peaceful and sustainable future."

Dr. Spencer Fitz-Gibbon

--------------

4. A Hungarian Refugee Who Fell in Love with Serbia Contradicts Hate-mongering General

PHOENIX, Apr. 21 - "I fell in love with Serbia and its people 17 years ago when I spent seven months there as a refugee from communist Romania," wrote an ethnic Hungarian, now in America, in an emotional appeal to TiM.

Paul Csurka's Apr. 21 letter rang even truer today, after the anti-Serb hate-mongering OpEd piece "Hungary Walks a Tightrope with the Serbs," was published in today's Wall Street Journal (Apr. 23). Ferenc Vegh, the commander of the Hungarian armed forces, and thus hardly an unbiased source, given Hungary's recent admission into NATO, alleged that the Hungarian minority in Serbia is under some sort of a threat from the Serbs.

Which is pure hogwash. This writer has just traveled through Budapest and through parts of Serbia populated by ethnic Hungarians. And in his conversations with Hungarians, both in Hungary as well as in Serbia, he has heard nothing but disdain for NATO's attacks on Yugoslavia.

For, just as in Kosovo, where NATO bombings have killed hundreds of ethnic Albanians, and have made tens of thousands of civilians refugees, NATO's bombings of Novi Sad, Sombor, Subotica, Sremska Mitrovica, Pancevo and other cities in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina have rained terror upon the Hungarian, as well as the Serb civilians. Bombs don't check the birth certificates before crashing down on peoples' rooftops. And the ethnic Hungarians in Serbia know that all too well.

And now, with that as a preamble, here is the rest of the letter we received from that former Hungarian refugee from Romania:

"Right now, I'm browsing through the 'Guided Tour' of Jugoslavija on the Web, and knowing what the evil forces of the New World Order are doing to Serbia, tears are flowing down my cheeks.

I fell in love with Srbija and it's people 17 years ago when I spent 7 months there as a refugee from communist Romania (I'm Hungarian). I've been a few times in Beograd, Sabac, Loznica, Zvornik, Vrsec, Valjevo etc. But I spent most of the time in Banja Koviljaca and 5km from there at an auto camp on the Drina river where we went swimming and fishing.

I treasure these 7 months as the most beautiful vacation of my life, the warmth and hospitality of the Serbian people is unequaled.

I went back to visit in 1991 as an American citizen and I was welcomed back by these people I befriended with the same enthusiasm. No American Media propaganda can change my attitude ever towards the Serbs.

So in these hard times my love and heart are with the Serbs and I know they're fighting a righteous war, it is about the survival of your nation and Kosovo is the birthplace of Srbija paid for in blood by your nation centuries ago.

NEVER GIVE IT UP!!! I know in my heart that beside the high price they're paying, in the end they will prevail.

I wish you and your nation the best in these Holly Days of Easter when the godless dark forces are bombing Serbia into oblivion and I want you to know that this war is not the will of the American people, who does not have a say so in government anymore.

This is the will of the draft dodging coward and his minions heralded by the propaganda of a controlled lapdog media that drowns out the voice of the people.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU!!! LONG LIVE SRBIJA!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Paul Csurka, Lakeside, Arizona

---

TiM Ed.: We have intentionally preserved this Hungarian-American correspondent's original spelling of "Srbija" and "Jugoslavija," which is how one spells "Serbia" and "Yugoslavia" in Serbian.

--------------

5. A Letter from Montenegrin High School Students

PLJEVLJA, Montenegro, Apr. 19 - While American parents are grappling with the tragedy at a Colorado high school, which highlighted the decay of our society, high school students in Yugoslavia are having to deal with an entirely different threat - a threat to their lives by the NATO bombs. Here's a letter we received from the high school students in Pljevlja, a town in northern Montenegro, a southern province of Yugoslavia:

"During these difficult days of the brutal aggression against our country, the high school students of Pljevlja are raising their voice resolutely protesting against the act and blaming it.

We the young, want to live in love and piece, study, discover scientific and artistic secret, and lead our lives according to the universal principles of humanism and freedom. Therefore we are appealing to the leaders of the countries that have taken pact in the aggression to stop this terrible tragedy caused by it. At the same time, we are appealing to the people of these countries, especially their students and youth to make their leaders stop pulling the triggers of the harmful and leave us live and study in peace.

Books and computers best us, just like all young people in the world, and we want to build our future and happiness in a new age using our knowledge. We expect that the common sense of lots of people all around the world (would prevail) to would stop the aggression darkening our sky and destroying our country.

Our sky belongs to our poetry and love's daydreaming. Therefore, leave it to us. Leave our streets, towns, factories and natural resources for studying, work and love. We believe that a peaceful mankind will win and provide peace and freedom as the must precious values of the mankind."

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

19. 04. 1999. PLJEVLJA

--------------

6. Trinity College Students Support NATO's War, But Not If Ireland Were to Get Involved

DUBLIN, Apr. 23 - A majority of the college students of Ireland's oldest university, the 400-year old Trinity College of Dublin, support NATO's war on Serbia, according to a survey conducted by the college newspaper, Trinity News.

Answering the question, "do you oppose the bombing of the former Yugoslavia?", 49% of students responding said "no," while 37% said "yes." Fourteen percent had no opinions.

But when asked if Ireland "should stay neutral or support NATO bombing?," 92% of students said it should stay neutral, while only 5% supported the bombing. Five percent said they had no opinion.

The Trinity College of Dublin has over 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

---

TiM Ed.: And you thought the American people are confused?

---------------

7. Attacking the "Capitol Hill" of Novi Sad

NOVI SAD, Apr. 21 - Remember Randall Major, the compassionate American English language teacher, originally from San Antonio, Texas, now in Novi Sad? (see Day 27, Update 1, Item 2, Apr. 19, and Day 9, Update 2, Item 1, Apr. 1). Well, Mr. Major has sent us this week a comment by Milena Vrbaski, also of Novi Sad, written as if she were a native-English speaker. More kudos to the English teacher, we suppose...?

"Washington is the capital city of the USA, on the River Potomac. Novi Sad is the capital city of Vojvodina, the northern province of Yugoslavia, on the River Danube.

Washington has its own Capitol Hill and White House, just as Rome has its Capitol and Pantheon.

Novi Sad has no hill for a Capitol because it lies on the Pannonian Plain. But until the day before yesterday, it still had the undamaged complex of the Danube Banovina, also built of white marble. These were two monumental structures, designed in 1939 as an administrative seat of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The complex was constructed according to the design of an internationally renowned architect, Dragisa Brasovan (1887-1965), and is/was considered to be his most successful undertaking.

About ten days ago, another of the architectural gems done by this man was destroyed in Zemun, namely the building of Airforce Headquarters, built in 1935. That same week, when the first bridge was bombed in Novi Sad, damage was also done to the Workers' Hall, built in 1933, another showpiece by Brasovan, at the end of the same street where the Banovina is located.

Other buildings designed by this architect can be found in Budapest, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Podgorica, Barselona, Milan and Thessaloniki. The latter three were designed for international exhibitions, and were disassembled at the end of the exhibitions. They were built, nonetheless, at a time when all of Europe was oriented toward construction, and not toward deconstruction.

In the near future, perhaps someone from an English-speaking country will want to do research on the opus of Brasovan the architect, who was invited to be an honorary corresponding member of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1953. If the air-raids on Yugoslavia continue, this job will have to be done not by a historian of architecture, but rather by an archeologist.

In spite of the numerous barbarian invasions on the dawning of the civilization which the Serbs also considered to be their own until March 24, 1999, Rome still has its Pantheon. Washington has its White House, although the children of the Indians of the Potomac river region are still waiting for an archeologist who will uncover the remains of their civilization under Capitol Hill.

Novi Sad is neither Rome nor Washington. Yet, it did have its building of white marble. And it still has its citizens. They are neither Italians nor Americans. They are not Indians, or barbaric tribes. They are the people of Novi Sad, forced to watch while someone, who does not know what he is doing, destroys their White House, in their country, in their town on the banks of the Danube, in Europe, anno domini 1999."

Milena Vrbaski, Novi Sad, Yugoslavia

-

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"