Dear Volodia,

Here are my thoughts about the situation and the ongoing discussion. I think it is fine to post the messages on the web. Moreover, I'm gratefully to you for this discussion. It is important to know what people on different sides of this conflict think and feel.

Unfortunately, it is all very frustrating. I mean not only the situation in Serbia and in Kosovo, but the arguments and the level of the discussion. It seems that people on different sides do not want to listen the other side. Another very frightening point: sides, which are close to the conflict, start to loose the ability to think logically and loose mercy for the other side. This is how the first world war started: not when governments decided to go into the war, but when people of different nations started to hate people on the other side. If even scientists cannot see obvious things and invent arguments atop of arguments not to see the situation, then the situation is really bad.

Let me give some examples. "Before the military actions 2,000 Albanians were killed, now this number is, at least, 10 times more" (Soyfer), "Before NATO bombing, there were NO uprooted Albanians ... Whoever started the trigger to bomb Yugoslavia, should had known that such an action ... would create exodus and killings"(Milutinovic). What this tells us is that it is NATO to blame that serbian army is killing people in Kosovo. I cannot understand the logic. If somebody sets your house on fire, you do not go to kill your innocent neighbor. Let's face it: serbian army is making the killings. When hundreds of thousands of peasants leave behind everything behind and move to another country, I know that the only reason for that is that some of them where killed and that they know that if they stay -- they will be killed. I do not need to watch CNN to find this out.

Let me tell you how all this was portrayed here, in US and then you will tell me what you got in Russia. Serbia was engaged in war with almost every nation of former Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia. Every war costed hundreds of thousands of lives. Once the autonomy of Kosovo was revoked and serbian troops started to move to Kosovo, it was clear that another war is coming. When the negotiations in France failed, NATO decided that bombing would stop the coming killings in Kosovo. It clearly did not. At the same time, the course of events also has shown that Serbian army planned the war and started the war in Kosovo. In that respect I believe Kip Thorne: "His [Milosovic] move to cleanse Kosovo of its ethnic Albanian citizens was planned and beginning to be executed BEFORE the 19 NATO nations began their bombing".

Few more comments: "there are no American interests in this country ... has no economic or humanitarian interests in this country "(Soyfer). I really do not like this position, which is shared by many americans. What it says here is that there is a horrible war coming somewhere there, thousands will die, but I do not care -- let it happen. I do not think this is a sound position for somebody who is against atrocities and killings. I would be ashamed of making that kind of statements. This world would be much better is we could stop wars. Unfortunately, this is not possible. But we should try if we can. Starting a war to prevent a larger war is a very difficult and unusual decision. We know why this happened this time. Political maneuvering did not stop Nazis from starting WWII, abstaining in recent Balkan crisis did not stop the wars. So, European countries + US decided to intervene this time to stop the coming war. We now know this does not help either. At the same time, I do not know what would.

" CNN shows 500K uprooted Albanians but none of the 2 million uprooted Serbs (half of my wider family is now uprooted). CNN doesn't say how bombs killed +1000 Serbs, which is much more than "genocided" Albanians. When we see on CNN "Albanian MassGraves," we recognize Serb MassGraves photos of Croatia."(Milutinovic). I think that many people understand that CNN is not unbiased. Note that CNN does not intend to lie unless it is mislead. Do those "Albanian MassGraves" really exist? This was the question. Do you think that atrocities in Croatia justify serbian atrocities in Kosovo? Note also that mass media here maybe biased, but it does not withhold information. General public knows that mass killings were done by all sides in the wars, not just by serbs. Do not think that americans believe that all KLA is just heros and all serbs are villains. In that respect, there are no hard feelings against serbian people. If you would ask a typical american about serbian people, he/she will very likely treat them as victims of the war. I would also add innocent victims. But let me ask you: do you think that kosovars are innocent victims too? Don't think that they also deserve to live? Even those who did not pay taxes and who pushed serbs from the province?

Let me finish this message by joining this statement of one of the previous letters:

We appeal to all: President Milosevic, the representatives of the Kosovo Albanians, NATO, EU and US leaders to stop all violence and military activities immediately and engage in the search for a political solution.

Anatoly Klypin

"Русский переплет"