BELGRADE, APRIL 20, 1999 --

Half an hour ago (3:30 a.m. local time), there was a series of really big explosions. I just heard on the news what was hit: one of the tallest buildings in Belgrade (about 30 stories).

A long time ago, this was the Central Committee building, but it was sold as office space about ten years ago. A friend of mine, a publisher, has his offices there, and another friend works there, designing software for a German-owned company that rents its office space in the building. There is also a restaurant on the 20th floor. The building houses no military or police facilities; it's just a big office building. And, oh yes, since it is a tall building, there is a TV-repeater antenna on the roof for two of Belgrade's television channels -- both privately owned, non-government stations. The studios aren't in that building -- just the antenna.

I haven't seen pictures of the hit. It must have been huge.

I just saw footage of the building. One rocket hit the top three to four floors, while another hit the lower five to six floors. Everything is in flames. Many offices in the building must have been occupied, even this early in the morning, because quite a few of the ones on the intermediate floors still have their lights on. Firefighters are at the scene. They have cranes that reach up to the tenth story or so, so they are fighting the fire on the lower levels. There is no way to reach the upper stories. The entrance hall to the building is a gaping hole. The building has round-the-clock security -- these people couldn't have survived. From what can be seen inside the building, there is no way for the people on the top stories to get down. The building has a flat roof, but helicopters can't get to it since it is in flames.

News from Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city with a population somewhere around 300,000 (half Serbian, half Hungarian): The last standing bridge on the Danube has been hit once again.

Over the past few days, since two of the bridges in Novi Sad, about 40 miles north of Belgrade, were destroyed and the third was severely damaged, the people of the city stood an all-night vigil on the last remaining bridge -- guarding it with their bodies, just as the citizens of Belgrade are doing on its bridges.

Yesterday there were several hundred people on that bridge, singing songs and holding hands. There is still no news of casualties, or even word if the bridge has been destroyed. I did see pictures of the attack itself -- the missile hit dead-center on one of the spires holding the bridge. After that, there was only flame and smoke, so I can't make out if the bridge is still standing. Whoever was on the bridge couldn't have survived.

A TV-repeater station overlooking Novi Sad has been destroyed, so all of Novi Sad's stations that can be seen in Belgrade are off the air. There has also been another series of hits on fuel tanks on the outskirts of the city, so that part of Novi Sad is totally in flames. The spill will just feed the miles-long oil slick winding its way down the Danube towards Romania, Bulgaria, and the Black Sea.

There has been a third night of repeated bombings of an already-destroyed factory in Valjevo, a city of 50,000 people, 60 miles south of Belgrade. The city hospital is in flames -- it is hard to make out whether it was a direct hit or just very close. But it doesn't matter; the flames will do the job. Friends of mine live in an apartment building not more than 300 yards from the hit.

There have been hits all over Serbia. It is no longer necessary to cover up the fact that civilian targets are being struck. How many lives of Serbs, Albanians, Hungarians, and other people living here translate into the life of one American?

Yesterday, a 3-year-old child was killed in the bathroom of her home on the outskirts of Belgrade. A fragment of a cluster bomb ripped through two walls, missed her parents sitting in the living room, and killed the child. Cluster bombs are forbidden -- their only use is against civilian personnel or babies. My youngest daughter is 3 years old.

I am so glad to hear that Bill Clinton has the greatest respect for the Serbian people, that these bombings are not directed against the people, but against Milosevic.

NATO planes are falling all over. I feel no compassion; these people are paid to kill. Is there a special bonus to strafe refugees, kill people on bridges, or destroy office buildings? All of them together aren't worth that little girl's life.

Yugoslavia isn't burning. Europe is burning. Burning in shame.

-- Alex

P.S. I tried to send this at 4:00 a.m. my time, but the bombing severed one of the lines from the Institute of Physics to the University of Belgrade Computing Center -- our academic Internet provider. During the early morning hours, an alternate connection has now been set up.