In an email interview, Jagos Puric, rector of Belgrade University, tells David Jobbins of the university's response to Nato raids against Serbia. All possible steps have been taken to verify its authenticity.
Q: Is the university open?
A: Yes, indeed. The professors and other teaching, research and non-teaching staff come to work regularly. The students can take exams at their own request, masters and doctoral theses are being defended, and some 20 masters and doctors of science have been promoted. It should be noted that Ramsey Clark (a former US attorney general) very recently was granted the honorary doctorate of Belgrade University. The faculties of the university also issue press releases and attempt to keep in touch with the academic community in the country and the world.
Are students attending classes?
No. Instead of coming to classes, many students come to stand by their professors. Together, they rally in the streets of Belgrade to voice their protest against the Nato bombing campaign and form human shields to protect the bridges and other vital parts of the city while the air raid alert is on.
Has the university or any of its associated institutes been damaged by the bombing?
Unfortunately, Nato bombs did hit the Belgrade University premises. Not even the clinical centre was spared. The government buildings, hit by bombs on April 3, are only some 30 metres from the university clinic of obstetrics and gynaecology, which hosts the largest maternity ward in the Balkans. The buildings of the faculty of agriculture in Belgrade, as well as the premises of the faculties of electronics and economics in Nis, the faculties of philosophy, natural sciences and law in Pristina suffered extensive damage The students and professors of Novi Sad University are hindered from coming to their faculties these days. The university buildings and the university residential area also suffered the effects of the destruction of bridges over the Danube, which virtually split the old and noble city into two and deprived Novi Sad of drinking water.
Still, after a fortnight of prolonged bombing, we believe the question concerning the extent of damage suffered by the university premises is stretching the limits of decency, if one knows that Pristina, Nis, Novi Sad and Aleksinac have seen houses, post offices, bridges and other vital civilian premises devastated by missiles.
What message do you want to give academics outside Serbia?
This question puts me to great trouble. It comes on April 6, the anniversary of the ferocious Nazi bombing of Belgrade in 1941. It has been two weeks now that we, the academic people of Yugoslavia, have been addressing the international community trying to arouse their conscience and raise awareness of the hardships our country is in, the hardships that constitute a great peril for world peace. And it is only today, on the 14th day of the Nato bombing, that I get such a letter from Britain.
In my professional and academic career, Britain has had great momentum. I was affiliated to the Culham Laboratories in the 1970s where I made valuable scientific ties and many dear friends. I serve on the Pugwash Peace Group. As an answer to your question, I find it my moral and ethical obligation to send you the text of the urgent appeal the university has distributed worldwide (www.bg.ac.yu).
I trust you to pass on the truth about the situation in our country objectively to the British public.
Jagos Puric was born in Montenegro.Since last year, he has been rector of theUniversity of Belgrade.
Apart from postdoctoral research at Culham Laboratories in 1973-74, his entire career has been in Belgrade's physics department.
He became professor in 1984 and was dean from 1987-91.