[PEN-L:6105] (Fwd) IF WE ARE GOING TO TARGET CIVILIANS, MAYBE WE SHOULD BE

["Paul Phillips" <phillp2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Tue, 27 Apr 1999 16:10:30 -0700
To:            ccpa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From:          Sid Shniad <shniad@xxxxxx>
Subject:       IF WE ARE GOING TO TARGET CIVILIANS, MAYBE WE SHOULD BE UP
               FRONT ABOUT IT - Lewis Mackenzie

The Vancouver Sun						April 24, 1999

A Soldier's View:

IF WE ARE GOING TO KNOWINGLY TARGET CIVILIANS,
MAYBE WE SHOULD BE UP FRONT ABOUT IT

	NATO's bombing of Serbian TV cost 10 lives at an outlet that
	helped western journalists tell their stories about the war.

	By Lewis Mackenzie

OTTAWA _ For three weeks this month, I was reporting on the
Yugoslav conflict from the "other side," namely Belgrade. Not only
writing this column, but also doing regular television commentaries
for the CTV network.
	It meant that most nights, between 10 and 11 p.m., we were
feeding our broadcast to a satellite out of the Serbian TV studios
that were hit in the early hours of Friday morning by a NATO missile
attack aimed at silencing President Slobodan Milosevic's propaganda
machine.
	I must admit that it was a bit of a shock Friday to see pictures of
the rubble and hear that at least 10 of the staff had been killed and as
many as 20 more were missing in the jumble of concrete and steel.
	Every western television outlet covering the war from Belgrade
used the studio in the heart of the city to transmit their reports _
CNN, ABC BBC, ITN and Sky from Britain and CTV. There wasn't
any choice.
	And obviously this put a huge strain on the staff, who were
unaccustomed to such a heavy outgoing traffic.
	There was a check on our reports, although you could hardly call
it censorship. We were required to show them the tapes, which they
reviewed, always within five minutes, and during the three weeks I
was there, we never heard even a comment.
	Nothing was rejected; not a frame or a word changed in any
way. In fact quite a bit of the footage was taken for use on their own
domestic broadcasts.
	In the hectic atmosphere of nightly air raids and a heavily booked
uplink schedule, the staff was unfailingly courteous, helpful, and
thoroughly professional.
	The staff was all young _ most in their 20s _ and some were
volunteers working without pay.
	I think all assumed they were safe from being hit by the presence
of western reporters and producers, if not through some code of
journalistic immunity. So much so that some brought their kids to
work with them on the theory they would be safer in the studio than
at home.
	I remember one night when all hell broke loose after the
American networks were advised by the CIA that the studio would
be targeted and the British received the same tip from their
intelligence sources. Only the Russians and CTV showed up to feed
that night. But gradually the Americans and British filtered back.
	As for the Serbian television operation and its propaganda value,
most of the footage they show is live coverage of anti-war rallies and
the rock concerts that accompany them; the latest bomb damage,
and a lot of old movies.
	Sure, there are a lot of outrageous statements on the news such
as reports that 15,000 NATO troops have deserted in Macedonia
and fled into Greece, and to date 17 NATO planes have been shot
down. But nobody believes it.
	In Belgrade, about 60 per cent of the population has access to
western outlets such as CNN and the BBC through satellite dishes.
	As a propaganda tool the local television is amateurish in the
extreme, although Milosevic's control obviously comes in useful at
election time.
	Looking at the pictures of the rubble Friday I could not help
thinking about the dozen or so people I had spent three works
working with on a professional an collegial basis.
	I think I know a military person when I see one and they
certainly seemed civilian to me. And they sure seemed innocent
enough.
	If we are going to knowingly target civilians as we did in the raid
on Serbian TV, then maybe we should be up front about it.
	And if we really think it is necessary to shut down Milosevic's
television service, then maybe we should do it effectively by hitting
the TV towers on the hills around Belgrade and Novi Sad instead of
the downtown studios.
	That way, we would not have killed a dozen civilians and Serb
TV might have been shut down for more than six hours.
	
Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, now retired, commanded UN troops
during the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian civil war of 1992.