POLITICS-YUGOSLAVIA: One Year On…The Trauma Still Lingers

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Mar 22 2000 (IPS) - Friday marks the first anniversary of the 11 week long North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO, air campaign against Serbia.

The White Book on the NATO campaign, issued last Aug by the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry says over 7.5 million Serbs were affected and over 2.000 died in the raids.

The NATO alliance said it was engaged in the campaign to prevent human catastrophe among some two million ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, but for the Serbians the trauma persists.

A year later, people still jump at the sound of trash containers closed loudly, car alarms going off. Children play games called “run to shelters” and many have turned to experts for help to overcome the stress.

The White Book on NATO Campaign, issued last Aug by the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry, says that more than 2.000 civilians were killed in the air raids against Serbia.

What was widely described in Western media as “surgical hits by computer guided missiles” drastically affected the lives of the entire country. Trains and buses were burnt to a cinder and millions of people lived for days without electricity or proper water supplies.

In the capital of Belgrade, a downtown street has been dubbed “Black Alley”. The long and wide Kneza Milosa Avenue is marked with charred remains of the Army Headquarters, ministries of defence, information, foreign affairs and ministries of interior of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

The buildings were empty when they were hit, but some 10 passers by or front guards were killed in dozens of separate attacks on the premises.

One of the most picturesque parks in the city, Tasmajdan, has been marred by a building without a front. It housed Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), where 16 people were killed on April 23.

Across the Sava river is the remains of the Chinese embassy, where three people died in May. Airports and oil refineries, fuel and ammunition depots around Belgrade were hit.

Psychologists say the impact of the raids on the human population was equally devastating. Detonations lasted for hours, smoke from fuel depots was seen for days while sleepless nights became the norm as raids were usually conducted at night.

Ana Djapovic of the IAN psychology centre in Belgrade, says most of the patients she sees suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. Symptoms include severe anxiety, sudden attacks of fear, depression, hostility and phobias that range from being too frightened to go outside to fear of enclosed spaces.

Another psychologist, Stanislava Vukovic, said children were the worst affected by the raids. “It will take a lot of care and explanation from both parents and experts to explain to children that detonations they still hear in their dreams are not happening now and that there is much more to life than running to shelters,” she said.

Meanwhile Jiri Dienstbier, the UN human rights special envoy to former Yugoslavia, said Sunday that the failure of the international community to decide on a clear future for Kosovo meant NATO’s mission to the province was thus far a “total failure.”

“The present situation in Kosovo just confirms the total failure to achieve the goals of the operation,” Jiri Dienstbier told journalists in Belgrade during a tour of Yugoslavia during which he has held many meetings on the Kosovo problem.

He said that the main problem facing the NATO-led KFOR peace keeping force was that their mission had no clearly defined aims, adding that no-one on the international scene seemed ready to provide one.

“We have UN resolution 1244 saying that Kosovo is a part of Yugoslavia, but nobody wants to confirm it and say that it is a solution and that nobody will dispute it and that Kosovo remains a part of Yugoslavia,” he said. “On the other hand, nobody wants to say that Kosovo will be independent,” Dienstbier concluded.

The drive for independence by the ethnic Albanians expressed through the armed uprising of Kosovo Liberation Army in 1998, led to Belgrade’s fierce and bloody answer and to the sequence of events that ended with NATO intervention against Serbia.

However a recent opinion poll reveals that Serbs still regard western countries as being ‘democratic’ and look to them for help them in their economic recovery and return from isolation.

According to the survey, conducted by the Institute of Social Sciences in Belgrade, 56 percent out of 1.588 people polled said Serbia needed to work towards being reintegrated into Europe and towards establishing close ties with the European Union.

The consensus was that this was the only way the country could rebuild its future.