VIVIAN STROMBERG Executive director of MADRE (a group which has been working with multi-ethnic, democratic women’s organizations in the Balkans since 1993), Stromberg said: “We must move beyond a yearning for ‘good guys’ in the Yugoslav conflict and remember that behind the various political formations and armed groups are communities of people. In Kosovo, whole towns and villages are being burned out and butchered. In Serbia, people are being terrorized by NATO bombing… Both must stop; instead, the United Nations must do its job.” More Information MICHAEL SIMMONS Director of European Programs for the American Friends Service Committee, which has…

ROBERT GREENBERG Assistant professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of the forthcoming “Language and Ethnic Identity in the Former Yugoslavia,” Greenberg said today: “Milosevic is looking for an exit strategy, with the cease-fire proposal and the possibility of the U.S. soldiers being released. We just don’t seem to want to deal with him. I don’t see the benefit of continuing to risk killing Yugoslav civilians and to risk losing any of our pilots. We should have some sort of resumption of negotiations; it’s an opportunity to cooperate with the…

JONATHAN DEAN Author of “Ending Europe’s Wars: The Continuing Search for Peace and Security,” advisor on international security issues for the Union of Concerned Scientists and former U.S. representative to the NATO-Warsaw Pact armed force reduction negotiations, Dean said: “What’s needed is to bring Russia in as an intermediary with Milosevic, proposing that the peacemaking force be UN rather than NATO — this is an extremely important difference.” MICHAEL BEER Beer provided strategic nonviolence seminars to Kosovars in Pristina six months ago. Today, as civilian deaths from the NATO attacks increase, Beer (director of Nonviolence International) said: “NATO bombing of…

HOWARD ZINN A widely noted historian who has authored numerous books including “A People’s History of the United States,” Zinn was a bombardier during World War II. He said today: “Not only was Clinton deceiving the public when he said his aim in bombing was to help the people of Kosovo, but he embarked on the bombing campaign with a reckless disregard for what would happen to the Kosovars as a result. The bombing will only create more victims, on both sides. Innocent Yugoslav civilians will die, so that both Kosovar Albanians and Serbians end up as victims of our…

ROBERT HAYDEN Director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, Hayden has been deeply involved in attempts to mediate the crisis in Kosovo, bringing together political leaders from all sides and regularly visiting the region. One of the Albanian party leaders he worked with was reported by NATO to have been executed by Serbian forces. Hayden said today: “This mission, supposedly designed to prevent a massive humanitarian catastrophe, has instead produced it. We have now shown that NATO is ‘credible’ for doing something incredibly irresponsible. Apparently ‘winning it’ means destroying the Balkans to…

ROBERT HAYDEN Director of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, Hayden has been deeply involved in attempts to mediate the crisis in Kosovo, bringing together political leaders from all sides and regularly visiting the region. One of the Albanian party leaders he worked with was just reportedly executed by Serbian forces. “The Clinton administration began this bombing with no plan for what comes after,” Hayden said Monday afternoon. “Everything that is happening was predictable and was in fact predicted — the increased fighting, the humanitarian situation and the Serbs’ rallying around Milosevic.” Hayden, who is author…

TERESA CRAWFORD Teresa Crawford was arrested and expelled by Serbian authorities last March while engaging in conflict-resolution efforts in Kosovo. She is a university fellow in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. “That the international community has resorted to bombing as the only way to deal with Milosevic and his regime jeopardizes the future of the region,” she said. “Bombing or no bombing, all the people of Kosovo whose communities are being destroyed will have to live together.” More Information JULIANNE SMITH Senior analyst at the European Security desk at BASIC (British American Security Information…

MICHAEL SIMMONS Director of European Programs for the American Friends Service Committee, Simmons said: “The conflict in Kosovo should have been anticipated and need not have happened…. On the one hand, in Iraq, the U.S. is calling for [internal] opposition to Saddam Hussein. But in Yugoslavia, there has been all kinds of opposition, but the U.S. has treated them with contempt.” MATT ROTHSCHILD Editor of The Progressive magazine, Rothschild said: “What gives the United States and NATO the right to conduct this warfare? If the United States is going to engage in so-called humanitarian interventions, it is incumbent upon it…

DAVID HARTSOUGH Executive director of the Peaceworkers organization, Hartsough has gone to Kosovo several times in support of nonviolent resistance and conflict-resolution efforts. Last March, he was detained by Serbian authorities, who jailed him and later expelled him from the country. “Diplomatic efforts should have been underway more than a year ago, before the place exploded,” Hartsough says. “At that time, the very significant and powerful nonviolent movement in Kosovo was calling for international intervention to try to stop the oppression bearing down on the Albanian people. Finally, in February of this year, after a couple of thousand people had…

In the aftermath of the congressional vote to deploy a missile defense system — just days before the Russian prime minister is set to arrive in the United States — some analysts are questioning the feasibility, prudence and legality of such a system. Among those available for comment are: WILLIAM HARTUNG Senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute and author of “And Weapons for All,” Hartung said: “Missile defense is unworkable, unaffordable and unnecessary. It also runs the risk of sparking a new nuclear arms race. Instead of changing our policies to reflect the end of the Cold War…