Appeal to NATO

Please don't treat us simply as a target. We are people from a small but proud and brave nation. It has never been easy to live in Serbia. Many conquerors have come and then left this country.

Only a mad man could believe that we could win a war with 19 countries. But we also know that we must not lose it. We defend our country and existence. We know that we can't be afraid of NATO. But we believe that in NATO we can find people, just as we are, who will try to understand us.

We know well that truth is on our side.

Do you know that in all Yugoslavia we apply the same law for all people, no matter what nationality they are? Albanians have not more or less rights than the rest of the people in Yugoslavia. They can learn at schools and study the Albanian language. Both their language and the Serbian language are officially approved. More than 70 percent of property belongs to Albanians in Kosovo.

Kosovo has been the heart of Serbia since the eleventh century. A great number of refugees from Albania have been settling in Kosovo for the last forty years. We received them with an open heart, offering them our country to be their home and freedom. But some of them turned out to be terrorists and wanted to be small kings on our territory.

The methods they have been using are oppression and intimidation of Serbs to leave Kosovo in fear for their children, lives and property. Statistics from 1961 show there were about 620,000 Albanians and 250,000 Serbs, but in 1981 there were about 900,000 Albanians and 120,000 Serbs. The terrorists also oppressed the Albanians who have accepted Serbia as their own country and wanted to live in peace.

NATO's support to terrorists has led to a humanitarian catastrophe for Albanians, Serbs and many other ethnicities living in Kosovo and all over Yugoslavia. You should know that in Montenegro live as many Serbs as Montenegrins in Serbia. We are a multinational, multiethnic country. Most of us are not communists. We just love our country.

One group of Albanian refugees came to Central Serbia. They claimed that they left their homes because of the NATO bombardments and because the KLA forced them to fight their former neighbors.

I am afraid that you will have a new wave of refugees very soon. Do you believe that Serbs will not try to leave the country if you continue your bombing campaign? In every war, truth has been the first casualty. It's so depressing that there is no standard and international law in the world any more. What is the UN doing now? It seems that NATO with its weapons wants to suspend the UN.

We only want to live in peace without NATO's bombing nightmare. You can kill us but the real moral winner will be Serbia.

DR. VLADMILA BOJANIC

and other four colleagues

Nis, Yugoslavia