Let me introduce myself. My name is Bojan Budimac. Born in 1959 in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. Graduated from The Academy of Fine Arts (painting), at The University of Novi Sad. Worked 12 years as a set designer for the local TV (now there's just rubble). After the country became devoid of hope (February '93), I moved with my wife (an ethnic Hungarian -- mixed marriages are very common in Vojvodina) to Budapest, Hungary.
In your article Sincere regrets you listed destroyed material goods in Yugoslavia. Well, the damage is huge, but I am even more worried by damage done in people's minds. My generation (and not just mine) was generally brought up on western culture (certainly our heroes were not communist workers but rock 'n' roll stars). Now, logically we feel betrayed by the same west whose values we shared. I am afraid that there is no "Marshall plan" capable of healing that kind of wound.
A popular joke nowadays in Belgrade is: We definitely proved that earth is round. For decades we shitted on the East and shit came from the West!
Losing trust in Western democracy in my opinion will be the major damage produced by this war. This is the first war that the attacked nation can watch on TV. Most of the people there have satellite dishes or cable so they can watch CNN, SKY and other western media (if they have electricity, of course -- maybe I am misinformed but my knowledge is that power plants are protected by the Geneva Accords). Everybody is shocked with the fact that "free" media are just as much 'propaganda machinery' as Serbian TV. Every day they see with their own eyes that NATO is bombing civilian targets (how can a sugar factory be a military target?), and every day they watch the briefing from Brussels where Jamie Shea is repeating that NATO targets are legitimate military targets. Then Slobodan Clinton comes on and convinces them that NATO has nothing against people of Yugoslavia. How cynical...
As you already know my city is quite a popular target for NATO. Besides all the other material damage, the average citizen of Novi Sad will never forget/forgive the bridges -- especially the oldest iron bridge. That was not a beautiful bridge. It was made by German POWs just after W.W. II on the pillars of the bridge destroyed by Germans. It was meant to be there just for five years and then to be replaced with some more lasting construction. But it stayed.
Novi Sad lost great deal of money because of that bridge. It was the lowest
bridge on the Danube and far below European standards, so when the water is
high big ships could not pass below it and had to wait for a lower water
level. In such cases the city was paying penalties to shipping companies. Still
we loved that bridge. I myself was using it daily while I was studying
because my Academy is in the Petrovaradin Fortress.
Speaking of bridges, here is one authentic story. Last week my friend, who lives in Prague, had a meeting in Szeged (a Hungarian city close to the border with Yugoslavia) with his ex-wife and four-year-old daughter (they still live in Novi Sad). While they were taking a walk by the riverbank little Timea asked: "Papa! How come these bridges are not in the water?"
I would like to inform you about Vojvodina. As you know that is the north province of Serbia. Like Serbia and Yugoslavia itself it is multiethnic and major nationalities are Serbs, Hungarians, Romanians, Slovakians, Ukrainians, Croats etc. At present the population is about 1.8 million. The demographic situation has changed in last ten years. The Population grew by about 20% (refugees from Croatia and Bosnia) and about 10-15% of Hungarians (who are the major minority, estimated number about 300 000 - 350 000) left the country for Hungary. More than 50% of all refugees in Serbia are stationed in Vojvodina (and generally those poor people are not welcomed anywhere).
To all that we have to add abolition of Vojvodina's autonomy by Slobodan Milosevic in 1989, the main consequence of which was a rapid falling of the living standard (Vojvodina was, with Slovenia and Croatia, one of the richest parts of former Yugoslavia). Another consequence was the narrowing of minorities' rights. There's no separatist movement in Vojvodina, but there are political parties who struggle (in democratic ways) for the return of autonomy. Although all nationalities lived in peace for 50 years these demographic changes make Vojvodina very vulnerable to ethnic clashes.
I am very afraid, if the West makes some deal with Milosevic, after a while he will start something there. The history of his rule shows that every time he had some problems maintaining power he started a war, or in this last case a crisis (in that he is very similar to W.J. Clinton -- just that the latter is bombing countries far away from the USA). If Milosevic could be removed with a simple "Go away!" (i.e. elections), he wouldn't be a dictator. So most of the people in Yugoslavia are in a schizophrenic situation, they would love to see Milosevic toppled but not with bombs falling on them.
Graffiti in Novi Sad: MILOSEVIC ON THE EARTH, NATO IN THE SKY AND WHERE IS GOD?
My best regards,
Bojan
Since Sunday night,
when Nato's planes hit the main power station for Novi Sad, there have
been no street lights at night: the city has become completely ghostly.
Slobodan Savic, a cameraman for the local official television station, was crossing the Sloboda ("Freedom") Bridge when NATO aircraft bombed it at 8 p.m. on April 3rd. He was driving very fast, and his friends think that saved him. Dramatic images of his Mazda car clinging perilously to the steep incline where the middle of the bridge crashed into the water were seen all over the world.
Two days earlier, a 26-year-old oil refinery worker was not so lucky. He was crossing the old Petrovaradin Bridge on his bicycle when it was bombed just before 5 a.m. For a month, the young man's family and friends searched for him. No one was sure whether he had been on the bridge when it was destroyed. Then his body - without legs - was discovered 10 km downstream.