02:00 | Vision | SYNC | VOICE OVER |
02:01 | Serbian refugees Vranje, Southern Serbia
(Interviewer) | Go to Orahovac and see what is happening.
I'm a Serb, but you will probably claim I'm Albanian.
If you come here again, I'll smash the camera.
You only film, but you do nothing.
Who is responsible for your destiny?
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02:18 | MIODRAC GLAVIC Refugee
(Interviewer)
Refugee | Yes, who is responsible? There are things I can not even say on TV.
Would you blame somebody in particular for what has happened to you?
- It's difficult to say. - Slobodan Milosevic.
It is us ordinary people, who are the least guilty. |
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02:37 | JAN EWANS Belgrade |
| Yugoslavia - barely three months after the war. The population has returned to their gloomy everyday life, without work and without money. On the surface Belgrade looks its old self, with plenty of people on the streets - but it's the unemployed without social benefit, pensioners without a pension, cars without petrol and soon - winter without heating. It's not a country bombed back into the stone age, but the bombs have hit where they do most injury to the people: the remnants of the economy, the jobs. The final blow to a people already down. |
03:10 | Unemployed woman
Interviewer | I have eight children and nowhere to live.
My husband is in the construction business and makes almost nothing.
- How much?
132 Dinares a month
- Does he get paid regularly?
He just got paid for May ... (continued form last page) no, March.
- How can you feed eight children on 130 Dinares?
I can't. We get 2-3 soup-spoonfuls and a loaf of bread.
That's it.
Half a spoonful per head for an entire day.
Take it or leave it.
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03:53 | JAN EWANS |
| In the provinces, especially in central Serbia, it's even worse. Nis can hardly be called an industrial city following the bombing of its industrial quarter. |
04:03 | ZORAN ZIVKOVIC Mayor of Nis | The economy of Serbia and Nis has been greatly stressed due to a miserable government and sanctions.
The bombings dealt a final blow to the already poor economy of Serbia and Nis.
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04:22 | JAN EWANS |
| Every day the poor of Nis attend the city's civic restaurant. |
04:28 | Unemployed woman | My husband used to have work but now he's unemployed.
- What did he use to do? He was a locksmith.
But look at the situation in the factories. Everything is disintegrating.
- Who has brought you into this situation?
The whole government spearheaded by Milosevic. |
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04:40 | interviewer
LJILJANA FERLEZ Pensioner | - Have you received your pension today?
Yes, the first half of my pension from April, app. 55 DKr.
- Are you able to live on that?
Yes, for one day, if we were living a normal life.
Words cannot describe how hard it is.
- What do you think about Milosevic?
The worst.
I can not say anything nice about him.
I used to call him a pig.
But not any longer. Even a pig can think. He can't do anything.
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05:39 | Interviewer
Pensioner | - Does the food taste nice?
Yes, but it depends on what you like.
- Is there enough?
Yes. Especially since there are only two of us. |
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05:56 | Pensioner | The situation in this country should be changed.
- Do you mean the government?
Yes. - Slobodan Milosevic?
That's what I mean.
Then everything would be all right. |
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06:27 | Unemployed | I am unemployed and I am selling our stuff here.
We sometimes buy things as well. |
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06:34 | MILAN JOVANOVIC Former boxer | I am on the dole -
but I haven't received any money since January
I take these things with me from home and sell them here.
- Can you make a living doing this?
I make 3 - 4 DKr per day depending on what I sell. |
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07:01 | VLADO MAKSIMOVIC black market cigarette salesman | I sell cigarettes
- Why?
I have to. My company went bankrupt.
It was bombed. Everything is destroyed and we have no money.
All the machines were destroyed.
- Can you make a living doing this?
We have to survive, even if it means living on bread alone.
- How big is your family?
I have a wife, two sons and a daughter.
- Do you believe a new government would be able to change the situation for the better?
I don't believe in anything else but God anymore.
I feel betrayed.
I have been running for the past eight years.
I don't believe in anybody but maybe a new government could make things better.
- Pass me the bottle. Here you are.
I hope things will get better. But I don't think so. |
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07:58 | Former boxer | You know something, we can't blame anybody.
We really can't.
Neither you, the government nor the opposition.
The opposition, Vuk Draskovic and the others, asked NATO to come to Kosovo.
Look here, what they have done. This is all on their conscience.
You can not just blame Milosevic.
He wanted to defend us common people.
The fact that it turned out differently -
is not his fault. |
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08:36 | JAN EWANS |
| Petrol is in short supply. The State has no currency reserves to buy crude oil and the oil refineries have been bombed. Whilst queues by the petrol stations stretch for kilometres many unemployed make money selling black market petrol. |
08:51 | ELECTRICIAN | I am an electrician, but right now I have to sell petrol to survive.
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08:59 | MILOS PEKIC Trader | I support my sister, who is studying, my father, who is a pensioner -
my mother, who is disabled, and my grandmother.
- Can you survive doing this?
We survive, but it's hard. |
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09:13 | ELECTRICIAN | I make 20 - 30 DM per day.
That's quite good, especially considering the income of others and the conditions here. |
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09:22 | JAN EWANS |
| and the car industry has suffered a hard blow. There is no sign of any more YUGO-cars coming from the ZASTAVA-factories in Kragujevac. Ten years ago, when Yugoslavia was at its height, ZASTAVA was amongst the country's biggest workplaces. |
09:38 | DRAGAN STANKOVIC Deputy Managing Director, ZASTAVA | It especially hit the Yugoslavian economy.
Which is evident from the sections being hit.
By destroying the metal working section -
the production of tractors, platform trucks, lorries and cars was destroyed completely -
along with weapons production and many other products.
This has also put the state railway out of service.
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10:04 | JAN EWANS |
| The only thing that wasn't hit was in fact the building producing small arms. But nearly all the car workers have been sent on involuntary holiday. |
10:12 | DRAGAN STANKOVIC Deputy Managing Director, ZASTAVA | - How do the employees survive?
It's everyone for himself.
It is extremely hard. It's almost something for the Guinness Book of Records. |
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10:23 | JAN EWANS Kragujevac (stand up) | Many Serbs believe that Nato in reality did Yugoslavia a great favour by bombing the YUGO-factories. 35.000 people lost their jobs but most of them had in fact already been sacked because of the economic crisis before the war. On the one hand the car did not sell abroad, nobody wanting such an old fashioned and outdated vehicle and the Yugoslavians could not afford one. |
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10:45 | Welder on involuntary holiday | - Have you at least enough for food?
Not at all. We are four in our family.
We need 100 Dinares per day. I don't even make 20.
- Have you ever supported Milosevic?
Never. |
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11:09 | MILUTIN CAKIC Car mechanic on involuntary holiday | We are completely finished here in Serbia, unless changes occur. |
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11:14 | DUNA DJORBIC Car worker on involuntary holiday | Things will only get better if there are changes within the government.
And I don't believe that will happen.
- Do you believe the YUGO-factory will ever be the same again?
Never. The factory has been operating for 30 years without ever producing a single decent car.
We have no skilled workers and the factory has no future.
It was a bad investment. |
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11:37 | JAN EWANS |
| The hard times have also hit the middle classes. In this family from Nis both parents are state employees. But their wages are so low and are being paid with such irregularity that there is no longer enough to pay the bills. |
11:50 | VESNA PETROVIC Engineer | It's very hard.
We are a family, which over the past ten years has fought to survive.
We are struggling for mere existence.
In the past our salaries were not high, but we were able to survive.
We could go on holiday, buy a piece of furniture and some clothes.
The bare necessities. We no longer have that much.
Nowadays we can not afford clothes, shoes or anything else.
Now we only have enough for food. It is sometimes even a problem to stretch the budget to buy food.
I used to support Milosevic, maybe because I was raised in that spirit.
My father is a communist.
I think we were all brought up that way, all the youth here.
That's why I've had trouble getting an overview of the situation.
I didn't know what to believe.
- Why have you changed your mind?
The life we lead, which is not a life.
It used to reflect our standard of living.
The person in charge of the country is responsible for our living standards. |
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13:37 | JAN EWANS
MLADJAN DINKIC | What has Milosevic done to change the economy of the country for the better of the people?
Nothing |
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| JAN EWANS |
| Economist Mladjan Dinkic has just entered politics. He wants to form an interim government consisting of economists and professors. |
13:50 | Mladjan Dinkic Economist, Reformist politician | I think he is not thinking about the better of the people. He is thinking about himself and the members of his political establishment. He doesn't care about the people. This is the main problem we have.
- Why are so many people so poor?
For many reasons. Firstly, the bad economic policy of Milosovic's government over the past ten years.
- What did he do wrong?
Everything. No privatisation, no liberalisation, a closed economy without competition, with state enterprises and economic measures are not used to help the country but instead enrich this regime. |
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14:40 | JAN EWANS |
Down with the government
Vuk, Vuk, Vuk
| There have been a number of large demonstrations in Serbia since the end of the war, all against Milosevic. They culminated in a demonstration in Belgrade, where opposition politicians openly argued and where many went home disillusioned. The majority of the opposition demands that Milosevic step down and hand over power to a technocrat government, which should ensure a genuine democratic election. Milosevic is unsurprisingly against this. The Socialist Party Spokesman says: |
15:10 | IVICA DACIC Socialist Party Spokesman | One does not obtain power without an election in a country with parliamentary democracy.
It is possible with other political systems which we consider part of the past.
The idea of an interim government stems from those who know they cannot win an election.
They have taken part in all elections but have always received many less votes than the serious political parties.
We are very open and are not afraid of a new election.
We believe that the people are the ultimate judges of all political parties and their leaders. |
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15:44 | VUK DRASKOVIC Reformist politician | - Why do you support an election?
Because we cannot see any other normal way to defeat Milosevic and his regime. We can do this in two ways. By force, producing disaster - civil war in Serbia - or to force him to accept democratic conditions for an election and defeat him via politics. |
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16:19 | ZORAN DJINDJIC Reformist politician | Our position is different from Mr. Milosevic's. He wants elections to avoid changes. We want elections to fulfil changes. I believe we will have elections in Autumn and we will change the government through elections. |
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16:36 | JAN EWANS |
| Vuk Draskovic says Yes to elections if regular democratic rules apply: access to the media and efficient measures against ballot rigging. |
16:44 | DRASKOVIC | - Where are you if the conditions are not met? We will see, look Milosevic must accept democratic conditions for elections if all opposition force him into elections, absolutely. |
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17:06 | DJINDJIC | We must prepare the situation, we must increase the pressure on the streets, this is the only guarantee we have for free and fair elections, not to make deals with Milosevic about electoral conditions but to have people on the streets and we must prepare these elections as some kind of referendum - for changes or against changes, for Milosevic or for Serbia. I am convinced we will win this kind of election, not totally legal elections in the sense of Milosevic but not as a revolution. We must combine pressure on the streets with some kind of elections |
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17:51 | JAN EWANS | Down with the government | The pressure from the streets can get big if a solution is not found before winter. A large part of the population will be without heating because of destroyed power stations. People are going to feel just how impoverished they have become. Dragan Covic, who was close to the Milosevic family, says: |
18:10 | DRAGAN COVIC Reformist politician | Unfortunately, a civil war is very likely.
Civil war can arise with the increasing pressure the opposition needs to exert to make Milosevic step down, so that this country can return to normal and be a member of international organisations - which Milosevic and his people make impossible.
I expect more protests and greater dissatisfaction - and expect that Milosevic's reaction will be further suppressive measures. |
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18:47 | DRASCOVIC | We have two sides to a civil war - the regime; the regime is ready for a civil war. People who are ready to sacrifice tens of thousands of Serbian lives to protect their power, if you attack them by force. |
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19:10 | JAN EWANS |
| And the Army chief General Pavkovic is ready to defend Milosevic against an uprising. |
19:16 | Gen. NEBOJSA POVKOVIC Commander-in-Chief, 3rd Army | The army must prevent a civil war.
If attempts are made to topple the government using illegal means - a most delicate matter, as mentioned several times - this may lead to a civil war, which we do not want and will do everything to prevent. |
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19:37 | JAN EWANS |
| But Milosevic has first and foremost lost support form the Kosovo-Serbs. The refugees feel betrayed by Milosevic, who guaranteed that nobody would touch a hair on their heads. |
19:47 | Serbian refugees from Kosovo | What did Milosevic say when he was at Gazimestan in Kosovo?
He said that nobody would ever touch a hair on our heads.
And now heads are rolling in Kosovo.
- What did you leave behind in Kosovo?
Everything. A cow, that was going to calve in three days.
A cow that produced ten litres of milk a day.
100 bees, chickens, a fully furnished house and half a hectare of land.
And here all we can do is sleep.
If we are to go back to Kosovo, they have to go first.
They should be killed, so that we can go back.
Give us weapons and we'll do the fighting.
We have no need for the army or the police.
Those crooks must cross the border.
We don't need the Americans, KFOR or Germans.
- Do you blame all the Albanians?
Yes, all of them! Without exception.
It's Serbian soil. You should know that.
All Albanians must go to Albania.
We don't trust anybody.
I don't even trust my own shirt.
All of them must go!
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21:01 | ZORAN ZIVKOVIC Mayor of Nis | - Is Kosovo lost?
I hope it isn't lost.
It would be terrible for the Serbs, for democracy in Serbia and for the Serbs - who wish to be a part of Europe and the world - to lose Kosovo.
The loss of Kosovo would be wind in the sails for the nationalist forces. |
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21:26 | Serbian refugees from Kosovo | We hope that God will make sure we get bombed again and disappear from the surface of the Earth.
We have no longer any hope. |
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