BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
"I have an aunt who lives outside Belgrade, very near Pancevo, you know, the industrial center that's full of refineries and other factories," said Dusan, a university student in Novi Sad, in a June 3 telephone interview from his home in the capital of Vojvodina. "Four days ago, NATO planes dropped leaflets in the afternoon saying `Hey Pancevars, we didn't forget you.' She picked one up in her neighborhood. Hours later, when the night came, the warplanes hit that city strong, several times, with many bombs. They are calculating criminals who are trying to destroy not only our country but our dignity."

The story by Dusan, who asked that his last name not be used, was characteristic of the scorn for the people of Yugoslavia that the U.S.-NATO forces have increasingly displayed after two and a half months of ceaseless air raids. The brutal bombings have reduced much of Yugoslavia's industry and infrastructure to rubble and brought devastation to the country's working class. The last two days of May, air strikes on a bridge in Varvarin, a medical facility in Surdulica, and apartment buildings in the overwhelmingly Muslim city Novi Pazar killed more than 40 civilians.

The U.S.-NATO assault has had a wearing impact on the youth and working people of Yugoslavia. It also produced the first signs that the regime of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is conceding most of Washington's demands.

On the 72nd day of the bombing, Serbia's parliament approved a "peace plan" proposed by Moscow's envoy, Victor Chernomydrin, and Finland's president, Martti Ahtisaari, who was representing the European Union. The two visited Belgrade June 2-3 to present the latest ultimatum by the imperialist powers attacking Yugoslavia. Prior to the visit, Moscow signaled agreement with NATO demands it had earlier rejected, such as the virtually complete withdrawal of Belgrade's forces from Kosova.

The plan approved by Serbia's parliament includes a provision for such a withdrawal to take place within a week. A limited number of Belgrade's troops, in the hundreds, are supposed to be allowed back later to take up positions at key border crossings. The plan also accepts the deployment in Kosova, under United Nations auspices, of an international force "with an essential NATO participation"; the return of all refugees and displaced people; and an interim administration of Kosova to be decided by the UN Security Council. Kosova is to remain formally within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with "substantial autonomy."

Washington indicated it has no intention of halting the bombing short of implementation of its demands. "Until Serb forces begin a verifiable withdrawal from Kosovo, we will continue to pursue diplomacy, but we will also continue the military effort," said U.S. president William Clinton June 3. He was meeting that day with Pentagon officials to discuss a plan for deploying a 150,000-strong NATO force to invade Yugoslavia this summer if the Milosevic regime does not capitulate. "What is essential is that the military action continues," British prime minister Anthony Blair chimed in, in his usual excessively arrogant manner.

Among Washington's allies - who are also competitors - in Europe, German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder tried to paint a more optimistic picture. He termed the deal Belgrade agreed to a "political breakthrough," adding, "Peace in my opinion is very close." The government of Germany has vehemently opposed any steps towards a NATO ground invasion of Yugoslavia. This stance comes amid a weakening of the German economy and the mark, which has dragged the euro down significantly against the U.S. dollar. Paris, which has often been at odds with Washington's foreign policy, also celebrated the deal as "the outcome that we wanted."

Reactions by youth, working people
In telephone interviews with a number of students and trade unionists in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis, and other cities, most described the accord as capitulation of the regime, but also expressed reserved hopes that the war may end.

"The state media is going out of its way to describe the deal as some `great victory'," said Vladimir, a student at the University of Novi Sad who asked to be identified only with his first name. "But it is capitulation." The Milosevic regime is particularly pointing to the absence of any reference to a referendum that could lead to independence of Kosova, one of the clauses in the earlier accord in Rambouillet, France, that preceded the March 24 launching of the NATO air strikes. Belgrade refused to sign the Rambouillet agreement.

The Serbian parliament approved the accord by a vote of 136 in favor, 72 against, and 3 abstentions. Deputies of the Serbian Radical Party, which many people in Yugoslavia describe as fascist, voted against and the party's head Vojislav Seselj vowed to resign from the government once the first NATO troops are deployed in Kosova. Milosevic's Socialist Party backed the deal.

The opposition Civic Alliance called for the resignation of the government, saying Belgrade could have accepted very similar terms earlier, before hundreds were killed in the NATO assault.

"Milosevic is acting like he did with the Dayton accord in Bosnia and earlier with the first breakup of Yugoslavia," said Dusan. "He first turns down any compromise, leading to war and ruin. And then he signs something that's as bad or worse than before the bombing."

In the early 1990s, as the rival regimes tried to tear apart the Yugoslav federation by fighting over control of territory and resources to maintain their parasitic existence, Dusan said, "Milosevic turned down proposals for a more loose confederation of the Yugoslav republics and instead pressed for war. We could have been more united. But look at where the country is at today. Milosevic doesn't care about the Serbian people or Yugoslavia. He has simply used the strife in Kosova to stay in power."

Washington and other imperialist powers intervened and used the conflict from the beginning to advance their competing interests by fueling the war. The U.S. rulers in particular began reconstructing NATO in the 1990s on the corpses of the Yugoslav people. They aimed to reinforce Washington's dominance over rival capitalist powers in the Atlantic alliance and lay the foundations for returning Yugoslavia to the complete domination of capitalism. They acted simultaneously to tighten Washington's military encirclement of the workers state in Russia and other former Soviet republics.

In the early 1990s the U.S. government sabotaged one initiative after another by Paris, Bonn, and London to act as power brokers in the war-ravaged Yugoslav workers state; each hoped to gain military and economic leverage against Washington and against one another. As failures mounted for the European occupation force in Bosnia, operating under a UN flag, and as diplomatic efforts foundered, Washington pressed successfully for U.S.-led NATO air strikes and naval and ground shelling against Serbian forces, conducting more than 3,000 such assaults between February 1994 and September 1995.

In late 1995, after this sustained bombardment, the U.S. rulers brought representatives of the Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian forces to the Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio, for talks that authorized Washington to spearhead an occupation army in Bosnia of about 60,000 NATO troops, including 20,000 from the United States. NATO troops remain in Bosnia today, with no settled departure date.

"Hypocrites like Clinton and Jamie Shea may be smiling now," said Dusan. Shea is NATO's spokesman, infamous for peddling Washington's justifications for the bombing. "They are responsible for killing so many people. I hate to see their troops in Kosova. But under the circumstances it may be the lesser evil."

The other option people of Yugoslavia would have faced was a ground invasion, Dusan said. "In a ground war, many American soldiers would have died as they did in Vietnam. But also many Serbian people. With such a reactionary regime in power in Belgrade, it would have been very difficult to defeat the strongest empire on earth."

This opinion was shared by most of the students and trade unionists interviewed by the Militant.

"If the war stops we'll be able to resume political activities," said Dusan, who is a leader of the Students Union of Yugoslavia. The organization is among the largest student groups in the country. It was in the forefront of protests for democratic rights two years ago, which forced the Milosevic regime to back off from annulling municipal election results that brought an opposition coalition to power in most of Serbia's largest cities. The Students Union also organized antiwar canvassing throughout the country last year, to oppose the Milosevic regime's repressive policies in Kosova. Since March 24, the Students Union has had to curb all street actions under the war emergency measures, Dusan said.

Others were less optimistic. "I am not so sure about how easy it will be to organize public activities again," said Martina Vukasovic, 19, a mathematics student at Belgrade University, in a June 3 phone interview. "There is no longer any media independent from the state. It will take time even if the bombing ends."

"There is no peace until the bombing ends," said Branislav Canak, president of Nezavisnost (Independence), the trade union federation independent of government control.

Main target: industrial working class
A number of people pointed to the so-called "collateral" damage from the NATO air strikes and the wearing impact of the war on increasing layers of working people.

On May 30, four NATO warplanes bombed the bridge over the Juzna Morava River in Varvarin, a small town in southern Serbia, near Krusevac, an industrial center of 80,000 people. "They hit the bridge in the middle of the day, at lunch time, as people were using it to go to the market," said Dusan. "One person was killed and several wounded with the first attack. Hundreds of people then gathered to see what happened and help the wounded. In less than 20 minutes the planes came back and dropped more bombs on the crowd that was gathered. The skies were very clear. They could see." At least 9 people were killed and 28 wounded.

The next day, U.S.-NATO bombs and missiles hit the Special Hospital for Tuberculosis and Pulmonary Diseases in the southern town of Surdulica, killing 20 people and wounding 50. Two other missiles struck a senior citizens' home within the complex.

Earlier on May 31, a residential area in Novi Pazar, the capital of Sanjak, a region in Serbia inhabited overwhelmingly by Muslims was struck, killing 14 people.

In each of these cases, U.S. and NATO officials claimed civilian casualties were mistakes. This has continued to arouse questions and opposition to Washington's course, including in Albania. "They are making too many `mistakes'," said Albert Shyti in a telephone interview from Vlore, Albania. "It's not believable."

The human toll at the beginning of June exceeded 1,500 civilians dead and 5,000 wounded as a direct result of the nearly 32,000 bombing sorties, according to Belgrade's figures. The Yugoslav government has also acknowledged that 1,800 of its troops have been killed.

Branislav Canak of Nezavisnost made another point. "It's not simply `civilians' who are being murdered," he said. "Their main target is the working class, especially industrial workers. You can't explain otherwise the systematic destruction of factories. How can workers organize and fight for their rights if there are no factories, if their workplaces are destroyed?"

According to unofficial figures, more than 90 percent of Serbia's 3 million workers are now unemployed, double the prewar figure. Most of the heavy industry has been destroyed. The recent targeting of power stations across the republic has brought daily cuts in electricity and drinking water, as pumps can no longer function, as well as shortages of basic staples such as bread. "We haven't had electricity for the last four days," said Marco Kokic, a technical school student in Belgrade June 3. "It only comes on for about an hour or two at 3 in the morning."

"Belgrade now gets 25 percent of the electricity it needs," said Vukasovic. "It's worse in other parts of the country." Public transportation in Belgrade has been curtailed to a minimum. A reduced number of buses run mainly during the morning rush hour and between 1 and 4 p.m. "At other times there are basically no buses or trams. And there are no street lights."

Major industrial centers like Nis, Serbia's second-largest city, have been particularly devastated. "They bombed the industrial strip as you come into town again today," said Duci Petrovic, a student at the university of Nis who comes from a working-class family, in a June 3 interview. Two days earlier NATO warplanes destroyed the warehouse of the Tobacco Industry of Nis, the country's largest cigarette manufacturing complex that used to employ 3,000 workers. "They destroyed the remaining supply of cigarettes," Petrovic said. The main production facility had been bombed in early April.

"People are being worn down here," Petrovic added. "We have no water at home, no electricity to cook, and lately bread is scarce along with sugar and cooking oil. I no longer watch television. We've been reduced to mere survival, not living."

Self-determination for Kosova?
Under the circumstances the possibility for an end to the bombing seem positive to many young people and workers. "We don't want NATO troops anywhere in Yugoslavia," said Bojan, a member of the Students Union in Novi Sad. "But after everything Milosevic has done, we will be in a better position to fight for democratic rights again if the war ends." Bojan said Belgrade has passed a new law prohibiting political activities inside universities. "But we'll set up tables in front of the schools and fight for our rights anyway."

Bojan and his organization have been vocal opponents of Belgrade's "ethnic cleansing" in Kosova. The brutalization and mass expulsions by Belgrade have resulted in nearly 900,000 Kosovar Albanians being deported, most of them to Macedonia and Albania in the last two and a half months - half the prewar population of 1.8 million Albanians in the province.

Others pointed to the possibility of renewing contacts with Albanian students in Kosova, if the deportees are allowed to return. In early 1998, delegations of Serbian students organized by the Students Union of Yugoslavia joined mass rallies for the national rights of Albanians in Kosova and attempted to forge alliances with their counterparts.

"We may be able to renew these contacts and start rebuilding bridges that both NATO and Milosevic have done everything they could to destroy," said Dusan from Novi Sad. "We must do that whether the Kosovars are going to remain citizens of Yugoslavia or be close neighbors."

"This will not be easy, but we have to go out of our way to rebuild confidence in each other and trust," said Vukasovic. "The only way to do that is by supporting the right of self- determination for Kosova. I would like for Kosova to remain part of Yugoslavia, but only if there can be established mutual equality and respect of all nationalities. It's hard to imagine how we can accomplish that with the same government in power."

A growing number of Serbs who supported simply the return of autonomy to Kosova and opposed the repressive policies of the Milosevic regime are now supporting the right to self- determination in Kosova. Nezavisnost, which has been working with a growing number of nongovernmental organizations, has produced statements leaning in this direction. Among others who defend the interests of working people around the world, the Cuban government issued a statement saying it "strongly condemns the monstrous crime against the Serb people, while supporting the right of the Albanian Kosovars to be fully guaranteed their national, cultural, and religious identity and to enjoy the widest possible autonomy and even independence if, after peace is achieved through a just and peaceful political solution, ethnic Serb and Albanian Yugoslavs in the present Yugoslavia would one day come to that decision. But, any such decision can never be imposed through a cruel and merciless war that can only multiply by hundreds of years the hatred unleashed."

U.S. dominance and fall of the `euro'
Meanwhile, the U.S. rulers have been doing their utmost to use the turn of events to consolidate Washington's domination as the number one military and economic power in Europe. As Washington pressed the bombing assault and began preparing a possible ground invasion, it fueled rifts between the U.S. rulers and Bonn and Paris. Officials of the 15 European Union member states announced June 3 they had agreed for the EU to take over the military powers of the Western European Union, a dormant military alliance of the EU powers that are also members of NATO. The EU has had no military function until now.

This coincides with the fall of the euro, the attempted common currency in the European Union launched at the beginning of this year, fueled mainly by the economic and military weakness of Bonn vis-a-vis Washington.

The euro has declined 12 percent against the U.S. dollar since January 4. "The euro's plunge," said an article in the June 3 New York Times "has also put the spotlight on Germany, which accounts for one-third of the 11-nation euro-zone.... Economic growth is running well below 2 percent, slower than any other euro zone country but Italy. Its exports are languishing, investment capital is heading overseas and unemployment remains stuck above 10 percent."

Other politicians and pundits point to the U.S. economy that remains much stronger than any of the EU countries.

Some point to the continued inability of the ruling class in a number of countries to use to strict "budget deficit" criteria that accompany the launching of the euro to push further cuts in the social wage. "Investors were rattled last week when European finance ministers agreed to let Italy run a slightly higher budget deficit than it had originally promised. The war for Kosovo underpins such pessimism."

As Washington is making headway against its rivals in the European Union, sharpening interimperialist competition in the process, it is also pushing along its collision course with Beijing and Moscow.

On June 2, as Chernomydrin and Ahtisaari headed for Belgrade, the Chinese and Russian governments repeated their demand that NATO air strikes be halted before further negotiations to solve the crisis in Yugoslavia. Russia's foreign minister Igor Ivanov spent the day in Beijing meeting with top Chinese government officials. Both sides announced their mutual desire to foster a "strategic partnership" aimed at countering Washington's hegemony.  
 
 
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