Introduction
 
 It is impossible for a society to engage in genocide unless the population
 is won to racism because racism is not inborn, not natural. For racism to
 take root, the culture and the political leadership have to support racism
 in deeds -- and also in words.
 
 We are told this has happened in Serbia. We are told that Slobodan
 Milosevich and other Serbian leaders have indoctrinated the Serbian people
 in hatred for non-Serbs, especially ethnic Albanians in Kosovo province. We
 are told that Milosevich launched this racist campaign in a speech at
 Kosovo Field in 1989.
 
 The charge against Milosevich - that he preaches race hate - is significant
 because it supports the charge against the Serbian people - that they have
 been won to racism and therefore practice genocide. Because many Americans
 believe these charges they are disposed to believe there must be some truth
 to the avalanche of pro-war propaganda demonizing the Serbs.
 
 So. It is important to know exactly what Milosevich said in his speech at
 Kosovo Field. Yet nowhere do any of those who attack Milosevich's speech
 quote his words. Why not?
 
 Greg Elich, a political analyst/investigator, has unearthed a U.S.
 government transcript of the Kosovo Field speech. Please read it and ask:
 is it a racist diatribe, reminiscent of Hitler? Or is it something quite
 different, something really quite different indeed?
 
 -- jared israel
 
 **********
 
 [Speech by Slobodan Milosevic, delivered to 1 million people at the central
 celebration marking the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, held at
 Gazimestan on 28 June, 1989]
 
 Compiled by the National Technical Information Service of the Department of
 Commerce of the U.S.
 
   By the force of social circumstances this great 600th anniversary of the
 Battle of Kosovo is taking place in a year in which Serbia, after many
 years, after many decades, has regained its state, national, and spiritual
 integrity. Therefore, it is not difficult for us to answer today the old
 question: how are we going to face Milos [Milos Obilic, legendary hero of
 the Battle of Kosovo]. Through the play of history and life, it seems as if
 Serbia has, precisely in this year, in 1989, regained its state and its
 dignity and thus has celebrated an event of the distant past which has a
 great historical and symbolic significance for its future.
 
 Serbian Character -- Liberational
 
 Today, it is difficult to say what is the historical truth about the Battle
 of Kosovo and what is legend. Today this is no longer important. Oppressed
 by pain and filled with hope, the people used to remember and to forget,
 as, after all, all people in the world do, and it was ashamed of treachery
 and glorified heroism. Therefore it is difficult to say today whether the
 Battle of Kosovo was a defeat or a victory for the Serbian people, whether
 thanks to it we fell into slavery or we survived in this slavery. The
 answers to those questions will be constantly sought by science and the
 people. What has been certain through all the centuries until our time
 today is that disharmony struck Kosovo 600 years ago. If we lost the
 battle, then this was not only the result of social superiority and the
 armed advantage of the Ottoman Empire but also of the tragic disunity in
 the leadership of the Serbian state at that time. In that distant 1389, the
 Ottoman Empire was not only stronger than that of the Serbs but it was also
 more fortunate than the Serbian kingdom.
 
 The lack of unity and betrayal in Kosovo will continue to follow the
 Serbian people like an evil fate through the whole of its history. Even in
 the last war, this lack of unity and betrayal led the Serbian people and
 Serbia into agony, the consequences of which in the historical and moral
 sense exceeded fascist aggression.
 
 Even later, when a socialist Yugoslavia was set up, in this new state the
 Serbian leadership remained divided, prone to compromise to the detriment
 of its own people. The concessions that many Serbian leaders made at the
 expense of their people could not be accepted historically and ethically by
 any nation in the world, especially because the Serbs have never in the
 whole of their history conquered and exploited others. Their national and
 historical being has been liberational throughout the whole of history and
 through two world wars, as it is today. They liberated themselves and when
 they could they also helped others to liberate themselves. The fact that in
 this region they are a major nation is not a Serbian sin or shame; this is
 an advantage which they have not used against others, but I must say that
 here, in this big, legendary field of Kosovo, the Serbs have not used the
 advantage of being great for their own benefit either.
 
 Thanks to their leaders and politicians and their vassal mentality they
 felt guilty before themselves and others. This situation lasted for
 decades, it lasted for years and here we are now at the field of Kosovo to
 say that this is no longer the case.
 
 Unity Will Make Prosperity Possible
 
 Disunity among Serb officials made Serbia lag behind and their inferiority
 humiliated Serbia. Therefore, no place in Serbia is better suited for
 saying this than the field of Kosovo and no place in Serbia is better
 suited than the field of Kosovo for saying that unity in Serbia will bring
 prosperity to the Serbian people in Serbia and each one of its citizens,
 irrespective of his national or religious affiliation.
 
 Serbia of today is united and equal to other republics and prepared to do
 everything to improve its financial and social position and that of all its
 citizens. If there is unity, cooperation, and seriousness, it will succeed
 in doing so. This is why the optimism that is now present in Serbia to a
 considerable extent regarding the future days is realistic, also because it
 is based on freedom, which makes it possible for all people to express
 their positive, creative and humane abilities aimed at furthering social
 and personal life.
 
 Serbia has never had only Serbs living in it. Today, more than in the past,
 members of other peoples and nationalities also live in it. This is not a
 disadvantage for Serbia. I am truly convinced that it is its advantage.
 National composition of almost all countries in the world today,
 particularly developed ones, has also been changing in this direction.
 Citizens of different nationalities, religions, and races have been living
 together more and more frequently and more and more successfully.
 
 Socialism in particular, being a progressive and just democratic society,
 should not allow people to be divided in the national and religious
 respect. The only differences one can and should allow in socialism are
 between hard working people and idlers and between honest people and
 dishonest people. Therefore, all people in Serbia who live from their own
 work, honestly, respecting other people and other nations, are in their own
 republic.
 
 Dramatic National Divisions
 
 After all, our entire country should be set up on the basis of such
 principles. Yugoslavia is a multinational community and it can survive only
 under the conditions of full equality for all nations that live in it.
 
 The crisis that hit Yugoslavia has brought about national divisions, but
 also social, cultural, religious and many other less important ones. Among
 all these divisions, nationalist ones have shown themselves to be the most
 dramatic. Resolving them will make it easier to remove other divisions and
 mitigate the consequences they have created.
 
 For as long as multinational communities have existed, their weak point has
 always been the relations between different nations. The threat is that the
 question of one nation being endangered by the others can be posed one day
 -- and this can then start a wave of suspicions, accusations, and
 intolerance, a wave that invariably grows and is difficult to stop. This
 threat has been hanging like a sword over our heads all the time. Internal
 and external enemies of multi-national communities are aware of this and
 therefore they organize their activity against multinational societies
 mostly by fomenting national conflicts. At this moment, we in Yugoslavia
 are behaving as if we have never had such an experience and as if in our
 recent and distant past we have never experienced the worst tragedy of
 national conflicts that a society can experience and still survive.
 
 Equal and harmonious relations among Yugoslav peoples are a necessary
 condition for the existence of Yugoslavia and for it to find its way out of
 the crisis and, in particular, they are a necessary condition for its
 economic and social prosperity. In this respect Yugoslavia does not stand
 out from the social milieu of the contemporary, particularly the developed,
 world. This world is more and more marked by national tolerance, national
 cooperation, and even national equality. The modern economic and
 technological, as well as political and cultural development, has guided
 various peoples toward each other, has made them interdependent and
 increasingly has made them equal as well [medjusobno ravnopravni]. Equal
 and united people can above all become a part of the civilization toward
 which mankind is moving. If we cannot be at the head of the column leading
 to such a civilization, there is certainly no need for us to be at is tail.
 
 At the time when this famous historical battle was fought in Kosovo, the
 people were looking at the stars, expecting aid from them. Now, 6 centuries
 later, they are looking at the stars again, waiting to conquer them. On the
 first occasion, they could allow themselves to be disunited and to have
 hatred and treason because they lived in smaller, weakly interlinked
 worlds. Now, as people on this planet, they cannot conquer even their own
 planet if they are not united, let alone other planets, unless they live in
 mutual harmony and solidarity.
 
 Therefore, words devoted to unity, solidarity, and cooperation among people
 have no greater significance anywhere on the soil of our motherland than
 they have here in the field of Kosovo, which is a symbol of disunity and
 treason.
 
 In the memory of the Serbian people, this disunity was decisive in causing
 the loss of the battle and in bringing about the fate which Serbia suffered
 for a full 6 centuries.
 
 Even if it were not so, from a historical point of view, it remains certain
 that the people regarded disunity as its greatest disaster. Therefore it is
 the obligation of the people to remove disunity, so that they may protect
 themselves from defeats, failures, and stagnation in the future.
 
 Unity brings Back Dignity
 
 This year, the Serbian people became aware of the necessity of their mutual
 harmony as the indispensable condition for their present life and further
 development.
 
 I am convinced that this awareness of harmony and unity will make it
 possible for Serbia not only to function as a state but to function as a
 successful state. Therefore I think that it makes sense to say this here in
 Kosovo, where that disunity once upon a time tragically pushed back Serbia
 for centuries and endangered it, and where renewed unity may advance it and
 may return dignity to it. Such an awareness about mutual relations
 constitutes an elementary necessity for Yugoslavia, too, for its fate is in
 the joined hands of all its peoples.
 
 The Kosovo heroism has been inspiring our creativity for 6 centuries, and
 has been feeding our pride and does not allow us to forget that at one time
 we were an army great, brave, and proud, one of the few that remained
 undefeated when losing.
 
 Six centuries later, now, we are being again engaged in battles and are
 facing battles. They are not armed battles, although such things cannot be
 excluded yet. However, regardless of what kind of battles they are, they
 cannot be won without resolve, bravery, and sacrifice, without the noble
 qualities that were present here in the field of Kosovo in the days past.
 Our chief battle now concerns implementing the economic, political,
 cultural, and general social prosperity, finding a quicker and more
 successful approach to a civilization in which people will live in the 21st
 century. For this battle, we certainly need heroism, of course of a
 somewhat different kind, but that courage without which nothing serious and
 great can be achieved remains unchanged and remains urgently necessary.
 
 Six centuries ago, Serbia heroically defended itself in the field of
 Kosovo, but it also defended Europe. Serbia was at that time the bastion
 that defended the European culture, religion, and European society in
 general. Therefore today it appears not only unjust but even unhistorical
 and completely absurd to talk about Serbia's belonging to Europe. Serbia
 has been a part of Europe incessantly, now just as much as it was in the
 past, of course, in its own way, but in a way that in the historical sense
 never deprived it of dignity. In this spirit we now endeavor to build a
 society, rich and democratic, and thus to contribute to the prosperity of
 this beautiful country, this unjustly suffering country, but also to
 contribute to the efforts of all the progressive people of our age that
 they make for a better and happier world.
 
 Let the memory of Kosovo heroism live forever! Long live Serbia! Long live
 Yugoslavia! Long live peace and brotherhood among peoples!
 
 * * * * * * * * *
 
 Historical note:
 
 This speech came at the culmination of a struggle in which millions of
 Serbs, Gypsies, Hungarians, Jews, Turks and other ethnic groups opposed the
 racist policies of the secessionist movement among Kosovo Albanians. For
 years the fascistic secessionists had dominated Kosovo; their persecution
 of other ethnic groups, especially Serbs and Romas ("Gypsies") is well
 documented; so is the multi-ethnic character of the mass movement against
 that persecution.
 
 What is so amazing about Milosevich's speech is he does not use the
 occasion of addressing a MILLION people in Kosovo to advance a narrow
 ethnic agenda. He does not at any point attack ethnic Albanians. Instead he
 calls for reconciliation and mutual respect, citing the presence of
 different ethnic groups as Serbia's strength. Of course the speech does
 celebrate the existence of Serbia as a nation. But don't ALL national
 leaders celebrate the existence of their nations? The important point is he
 celebrates it as a multi-ethnic entity and that he never calls for attacks
 on non- Serbian territory. Indeed, his point about the Kosovo Field battle
 of 1389 is that the Serbian army was morally superior and therefore
 victorious even in defeat, a rather sophisticated if melancholy viewpoint
 definitely over the head of the one-time Rhodes Scholar who is now
 Hustler-in-Chief of our own poor (though all-powerful) country.
 
 By the way, if you know someone you'd like me to add to the list of people
 to whom I send documents and analyses please send the email address to
 jaredi@aol.com. Thanks.
 
 --jared israel
 
 PS Below is a letter I just sent the Independent, a British paper:
 
 Dear editor:
 
 In his May 3 letter Stuart Russell presents NATO's claims of massive
 Serbian atrocities as proven and asserts government complicity because "We
 have yet to hear any mention of Milosevic condemning, or even distancing
 himself from the atrocities."
 
 In fact Milosevich told UPI on April 30th: "We are not angels. Nor are we
 the devils you have made us out to be. Our regular forces are highly
 disciplined. The paramilitary irregular forces are a different story. Bad
 things happened... We have arrested those irregular self-appointed leaders.
 Some have already been tried and sentenced to 20 years in prison."
 
 Proving innocence is harder than charging guilt. But consider: NATO and the
 media have been exposed over 50 times lying and fabricating evidence
 (E.g..,
 Jamie Rubin said on 3/30 that Pristina Stadium was being used to intern
 tens of thousands; but when Agence France Presse reported the stadium had
 been unused in weeks, Rubin simply denied having made the charge; NATO
 presented a tape of a pilot bombing a refugee caravan only later to explain
 it was AN EXAMPLE of such a tape (?!), Agence France Presse reported (4/24)
 an Amsterdam reconnaissance expert's finding that NATO had doctored "mass
 grave" pictures, etc., etc.) If the prosecution is caught systematically
 lying and creating evidence, shouldn't it be the one on trial?
 
 Jared Israel