Always Learning wrote:
Having been very emotional distraught circa 1992-1994 when I repeatedly argued passionately with my work colleagues that western (i.e. British) aircraft attacking Serbian tanks and artillery would stop the massacre of thousands of civilians from all parts of Yugoslavia, I wish to assert that genocide and mass murders by any bunch of people is fundamentally wrong. It is still happening today in Africa and probably elsewhere.
I will be very brief, but we can communicate off-list. That was misconception. JNA, Yugoslav army, was at that time multi-national, mixed on purpose from all sides of the country. In Slovenia, first to secede, JNA soldiers were sent in tanks without ammunition and were gunned down by sedition soldiers.
I saw the horrific scenes from Yugoslavia on television night after night while the rest of the world was uncaring and inactive despite the urgency of a determined military response to protect the civilians.
Civilians were fighting each other. JNA was actually a buffer at the first part of the civil war but was attacked for their superior weapons.
When limited UN Forces intervened, I remember with pride a British army colonel (now a Conservative MP (member of the British Parliament)) angrily telling the murdering military that unless they stopped he would instruct his force to open fire on them.
I visited Beograd during the UN sanctions and witnessed the run-down conditions and the ad hoc petrol filling stations along the main roads - cars parked at 90 degrees to the road with a large plastic container on the bonnet. They said Hungarian petrol (bezine) was best because it contained less water.
I stayed at the Beograd hotel where people were gunned-down. I had a meeting in a building in the middle of the freezing winter with all the windows wide open because the stench of dead bodies from the floor beneath us was overpowering.
That must have been some organized crime related shooting. Belgrade was 200km away from fighting.
I am glad peace has come and I hope Europe never ever again tolerates such a shameful period in its history.
Being friends, working together and respecting others is best.
I totally agree on this one.
I apologies for such off-topic violation to everybody, I am done with this tread on-list. Please send replies to my personal mail if you feel the need to respond.
Ljubomir