A View from Montenegro

Vanya Vujinovic calls home for the news

Five years ago Vanya Vujinovic moved to Seattle, where he works as a massage therapist, waiter, and musician. His family lives in Montenegro. --Doug Nufer

DN: So, what's happening?

VV: They all say don't worry and it's relatively safe in Montenegro because the attack has stayed away. But, it's critical. People are nervous but they aren't afraid, because people strongly believe that NATO is wrong. It's completely wrong and by international laws it's completely illegal.

DN: Have they seen many refugees in Montenegro?

VV: In northern Montenegro there are apparently 40-50,000 Albanians who have escaped the fighting in Kosovo. They camp out, then eventually they go down south through Montenegro and cut across to Albania. So basically, the Montenegrins are trying to be helpful, but the NATO attacks are making it more difficult.

DN: What's the relationship between Montenegro and other parts of what was Yugoslavia?

VV: There's a long tradition of a friendly relationship. Montenegrins have always considered Serbs brothers because we speak the same language, had the same church, which is Orthodox Christian; we've been neighbors forever, for the last thousand years, ever since Slavs came down from the mountains. It was the same tribe that came down to the Mediterranean. We are the same people, but for the last 900 years Montenegro had its own kingdom, and so did Serbia. We are kind of brothers in two separate countries, and as far as I'm concerned, Montenegro is an entity by itself. I'd like to stay in a union with Serbia, because they are bigger, wealthier. Montenegro and Serbia are together, still, but they are deciding whether to stay together. Especially in these kind of circumstances, it's difficult.

DN: In Montenegro do you have different factions or groups that fight with each other?

VV: We have people who consider themselves Montenegrins, period. In northern Montenegro we have people who say we are Montenegrins, but really we are Serbs, which means that in our roots, we are Serbs. Then we have Muslims who are Serbs converted into Islam by the Turks by 500 years of Turkish occupation. And we have a small percent of Albanians who have been loyal to Montenegro throughout history.

DN: The news often portrays that part of the world as a bunch of rival factions that hate each other. You seem to be contradicting that.

VV: They don't hate each other, however there is friction between Montenegrins who think we should stay away from this trouble and Montenegrins who think we should stick together with Serbia, and that we should send troops to Kosovo should there be a ground invasion.

DN: You mean to fight with Serbia against NATO?

VV: Yes. Again, we have to come back to the basic fact that this is an illegal action. Not only is the bombing illegal, but it's humiliating. Not only are they destroying military facilities, they are destroying historical sites. Just a couple of weeks ago they reported they destroyed President Milosevic's residence. That residence was a residence of Serbian kings. It's like destroying the White House.

As for Milosevic, he's not the best guy. Most of the Serbs don't like him at all, but there's no time to criticize him too much because somebody's attacking your country.

DN: What do you think of the news coverage you see here?

VV: I'm terrified. The American media is working hand in hand with the American government. Prior to this NATO attack there was confrontation between Serbian police and Albanian separatists for fourteen, fifteen months. And in those fifteen months, there was less than 2000 people killed, most of them either Serbian police or Albanian separatists and only a handful of civilians. So the conflict should have easily been contained with only a few more casualties or maybe a few more months of friction. And they would settle, they would find some middle ground where Kosovo would have autonomy, but still be a part of Yugoslavia.

You had moderate Albanian politicians [in Kosovo] who were willing to talk and willing to find a compromise with Serbs--and they still are.

I strongly believe that all of this would never have happened without NATO bombing. The expulsion of people, the anger of Serbs; you have the paramilitary and you have mercenaries just going around looting and raping--this never would have happened if they didn't bomb. Before, sporadically here and there, there were incidents, but never on this scale.

DN: What about the characterization of Milosevic as Hitler?

VV: You see the same pattern in Iraq. Not to say Saddam is right.

On the one hand the Western world is angry at Milosevic; on the other hand, Serbs are angry at him because he's not nationalist enough to protect the national interest. He did a horrible job in P.R., in communication with the West. He never was a trained politician. He was a Communist Party member, who, under the circumstances ten, fifteen years ago, came to be on top.

DN: Do you think there's any negotiation that could work now. NATO's demands that he allow troops to occupy all of Serbia, that he change the economy . . . these weren't demands anyone could accept.

VV: No you can't. It's unrealistic. The only way to negotiate is if Russia plays a major role. First NATO would have to stop the bombing. The Serbs have said more than once, stop all the bombing and let's talk.

In some ways, Serbia is like an eyesore to the West, because the Serbs have always been friends and allies with Russia, and politically speaking, it was a mistake to ask Russia for help in this crisis instead of sending envoys also to America to explain the situation.

Of course, when they didn't explain the situation, the Western world and especially America created this picture of them as this hostile people who are doing this ethnic cleansing. And that's completely wrong. In Croatia and in Bosnia, Serbs lived in those territories for the last 900 years. When civil war started in Yugoslavia ten years ago, all Serbs really wanted was to preserve the territories where they lived and still stay in Yugoslavia.

Now, people over there are ready to fight. Ground forces, specifically. Now there's going to be a slaughterhouse. Once people die by hundreds and thousands, does that really justify the original purpose of the NATO attack? Even if the Serbs lose this war, they will never give up.