Message from a Macedonian green

>From Left Business Observer "List" 
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 18:12:57 +1100 
From: "rc-am" <rcollins@netlink.com.au
Subject: Re: Protest against the Bombing

Dear friends; mars@rsc.com.mk I am sorry I have not been able to inform you
and react promptly on the rapidly unfolding developments here. As missiles
and bombs rain ruthlessly on the people and infrastructure of Yugoslavia,
only 15 kilometres north from where I live in Skopje (the capital of
Macedonia), shocking news are coming in by the minute.

You might have heard in the headlines that the biggest and most violent
protests against NATO involvement in Yugoslavia so far, took place in
Skopje about 5 hours ago. An outraged mass of demonstrators, mostly young,
carrying Macedonian and Yugoslav flags (along with some very witty
transparents and symbols:) stormed the US Embassy and set several private
cars and adjoining objects in the courtyard on fire. Afterwards they
ransacked some vehicles parked by the nearby hotel where a lot of foreign
journalists and representatives are based. During this occasion, the
reporter of CNN, Matthew Chance, who by the way has been constantly
incorrectly informing about the events here, had to run for his life in
panic right in the middle of a live broadcast. Afterwards the demonstrators
stormed the German and British Consulates, but were attacked by the special
police, who up to that moment were only observing the situation.
Consecutively, 60 of them have been arrested.

On almost all the major world newscasts this evening, a transparent with
the words 'Enough, Pinocchio!' portraying Clinton with a long nose and a
swastika on his forehead (in reaction to the blatant lies he used to
justify the criminal attack) was shown. I am proud to inform you that this
transparent was created and carried by three activists of the Ecologists'
Movement of Macedonia - Youth (DEM-Youth) - Daniela Stojanova, Emil
Krstanovski and myself (btw, I assume full responsibility for the poor art
on the slogan and the swastika ;-)). Unfortunately I was not present during
most of the demonstrations, but I have just heard that Daniela, the
co-ordinator of DEM-Youth, was in the front lines facing the special
police, while Emil, among other heroic involvements, has been known to have
made a precise hit on an US Embassy Representative with an egg.

We are shocked and deeply distressed to see that green movements across
Europe are silent to this criminal act, the complete end and destruction of
international law and peace. The arguments used to justify it are false and
immoral: instead of averting a 'humanitarian catastrophe,' the intervention
will and is already creating one: as innocent people throughout the
Yugoslav cities are suffering casualties and unimaginable psychological
stress, refugees from Kosovo continue to storm Macedonia in fear of
retaliation from the Yugoslav Army. We have come to a situation where world
leaders speak straight-faced in front of their nations, with statements
implying that bombs and missiles are delivered to innocent civilians as
humanitarian aid.

The situation here in Macedonia is also very tense and psychotic, as we are
very close to the border and our country is also ethnically mixed. In
addition to NATO heavy machinery on city streets, rapidly increasing demand
for certain products in stores and gas lines, now we can hear the whipping
sound of invisible warplanes flying right above us. I am on the phone
non-stop with concerned friends/relatives, I cannot sleep for nights trying
to tap all the media reports I can get .... but still it is hard to imagine
the horrifying situation in which the citizens of Yugoslavia have been
placed without their will.

I stand firmly in their support, in the name of justice and peace.

During the next day I will be drafting a declaration against the strikes
that I will propose to the Federation of the Young European Greens for
adoption. It's high time that we took some action on this. Please send
emails of support to me personally, to DEM (bimadem@lotus.mpt.com.mk) or to
MARS (mars@rsc.com.mk) if you agree with such an idea. I will then
regularly inform you about the progress made.

Together with my colleagues we have been thinking of initiating an email
campaign as well. More on this tomorrow. Please inform us of any mailing
lists on the issue that you might know of on the issue.

Stefan Buzharovski, Vice Chairperson of the Federation of Young European
Greens

 


Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)