LETTERS.

Kosovo, Right or Wrong

Congratulations on your conscientiousness in dealing with the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Unlike most of the American press, The Progressive published several startling articles, especially in the July issue (such as Robert Fisk's "Who Needs NATO?" and Howard Zinn's "Their Atrocities--and Ours"), that show the other side of this tragic conflict, providing information that was largely suppressed by the leading American press.

Now, after the devastating bombing has ceased, let us put the entire matter in simple, factual terms. If NATO had agreed to delete Appendix B of the Rambouillet agreement, which was designed to legalize the secession of Kosovo and impose the occupation of Serbia proper, then the Yugoslav delegation would have signed the accords. This would have meant that: 1) NATO forces would have been allowed to control the province; 2) Kosovo would have been granted autonomy; and, most importantly, 3) the number of casualties on both the Serbian and Kosovar sides would have been considerably reduced.

So the question remains: Why did NATO refuse to continue the negotiations and instead insist on the most brutal and inhumane military destruction in the post-Cold War period?

Vlada Petric Cambridge, Massachusetts

I would like to add my humble thoughts on the Kosovo-NATO theme, as elaborated on in the July issue.

I spent three weeks in Yugoslavia/Kosovo in June as a freelance journalist braving the purposeful bombardment of civilian targets by NATO--the most savage Europe has seen since World War II.

The most egregious site of destruction was the Belgrade hospital--demolished with one precision-guided missile, on May 20 at 1 A.M., two short blocks from my residence. The intensive care unit of the Neurosurgical Clinic was hit, and the blast knocked down five adjacent hospital buildings, among them the Maternity Clinic and the Children's Hospital. Babies in the ward lost their hearing due to deafening blasts that blew windows and doors off. The hospital buildings had to be evacuated; and patients were placed in makeshift shelters around the city. A half an hour after this attack, another bomb struck the fire truck and ambulance crews rushing to the scene.

And here's how NATO summed up that attack: In the daily dispatch for May 20, Jamie Shea announced to the world that "one more day of NATO action went by schedule."

Tika Jankovic San Jose, California

Please pass on my sincere thanks and praise to Representative Dennis...

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