Kosovo War (Serbia : 1998-1999)

Serbian writer Jasmina Tesanovic. She’s just published a book called “The Diary of a Political Idiot,” (Midnight Editions 2000). The book, comprised of excerpts from her personal journal, narrates daily life in Belgrade during the political upheaval and bombings in Serbia. She is one of the founders of 94, the first feminist publishing house in Serbia. She lives and works in Belgrade.

Dr. Nils Daulaire is the president of the Global Health Council, one of the three non-governmental organizations that administers the Jonathan Mann Award, named after the late doctor who was a pioneer in the fight against AIDS and connecting global health and human rights.

Dr. Vjosa Dobruna (“Vee-YO-sa Doe-BRU-na”) is one of this year’s recipients of the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights. She’s being recognized for her work as founder of the Pristina Center for the Protection of Women and Children, which treats those victimized by rape, torture, or psychological trauma. Dobruna is a pediatrician neurologist. During the war, she fled to Macedonia and set up work in a Macedonian refugee camp. Dobruna narrowly escaped arrest last year. Her colleague, Dr. Flora Brovina, is the other recipient of the award.

We meet Veton Surroi (vi-TON sir-ROY), publisher of the leading independent Albanian newspaper in Kosovo, called Koha Dotire (CO-ha DE TOR-ray). Surroi has just received a democracy award from the National Endowment for Democracy, a US non profit bipartisan organization. During NATO’s bombing of Kosovo, Surroi was in hiding and his newspaper was published underground.
Description (Program)

Steve Erlanger is the Central Europe and Balkans Bureau Chief for The New York Times. He reports from Prague, Czech Republic on the aftermath of the NATO bombings in Yugoslavia. During the war, he filed reports from Belgrade.

Staff writer for The Times of London, Eve Ann Prentice. She's been visiting the Balkans regularly since her first assignment there in 1978. She's reported on wars in Bosnia and Croatia. She and other journalists recently made a trip into Kosovo, led by pro-Serbian French philosopher Daniel Schiffer. During the trip, in southwest Kosovo, their party was hit by NATO bombing. Their driver and interpreter was killed in the raid.

Editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe, Frederick Kempe. As a journalist, he's covered Germany for over twenty years, and is also the son of German immigrants. His new book "Father/land: A Personal Search for the New Germany" (Putnam) is his exploration into his family's past in Germany, and an analysis of Germany today.

Correspondent for the New York Times, Steve Erlanger. He's been filing from Belgrade since the NATO bombing began. He'll discuss life in the city, and the likelihood of negotiating a settlement with Milosevic.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg reports from Rome where he's been watching the coverage on the NATO bombings, and the Kosovo refugees.

Belgrade writer and historian Aleksa Djilas, talks about the NATO bombing of his city. He talks to us by phone from his home in central Belgrade. He says many thousands of Serbs have relocated to neighboring countries to escape the bombing. Also, He says the majority of Serbs are not using available bomb shelters because the air strikes last for up to twelve hours. Djilas is the author of the book The Contested Country: Yugoslav Unity and Communist Revolution. And he's a former research associate at Harvard's Russian Research Center.

Randy Ackley is a Public Information Delegate for the ICRC. He talks with us from a refugee camp in Macedonia. He talks about the conditions in the camp.

Maarten (mar-tin) Merkelbach is head of Tracing Services for the International Committee of the Red Cross. He is directing the use of a newly designed computer system to match up family members of Kosovo refugees separated during the exodus. We talked with him from Skopje, Macedonia.

Journalist Serge Schmemann is foreign editor and former Moscow Bureau Chief for The New York Times,and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He'll discuss the situation in Kosovo, and Russia's response. And he'll talk about his own family's exodus from Russia, pushed out by the Russian Revolution. His new book "Echoes of a Native Land: Two Centuries of a Russian Village." Schmemann is the descendant of several families of the higher Russian nobility. He was born in Paris.

Anthony Loyd is a reporter for The Times of London. He left Kosovo shortly after the NATO attack on Yugoslavia began.He talks about what Kosovo was like just before the war.

Our first Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues, David Scheffer. As such, he looks into violations of international humanitarian law anywhere in the world. He's just returned from Macedonia where his mission was to see what conditions the Kosovo refugees were exposed to, and to determine the nature of the crimes committed against them. Scheffer is a senior aide to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Journalist Fred Hiatt is a member of the Editorial page staff for the Washington Post. He's also the paper's former Russia correspondent. He'll discuss Russia's position on the Serbs, and the NATO bombings.

The New York Times' Roger Cohen puts in a call from Berlin. Cohen reported from Bosnia during the war there. He's the author of the book, "Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo."

To discuss the situation in Kosovo and the NATO bombings, a talk with Julia Glyn-Pickett the spokeswoman for Belgrade station Radio B92, the leading independent radio station in Serbia, one of three provinces of the Republic of Yugoslavia. Earlier this week the Yugoslavian government banned the station from broadcasting and journalists were forbidden to talk with foreign media about the situation. The government also expelled journalists from Britain, France, the U.S., and Germany. The journalist will speak to us from London.

We discuss the situation in Kosovo with Miranda Vickers, Britain's leading historian of the Albanian people in general and Kosovo in particular. The conflict continues between Serbs and Albanians for control of the region. Vickers is an Albanian analyst for the International Crisis Group set up after the Dayton accords. Her new book is called "Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo." (Columbia University Press)

The health of the population in Kosovo is in jeopardy as the fighting there continues. We speak with Keith Ursel, the Doctors Without Borders coordinator of the mobile clinic program. During the day, temperatures rise to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The mobile team has gone to treat several thousand people hiding in the Kosovo hills. The refugees have no shelter, very little food or drinking water.