Jugoslavienkriget 1999. Infrastrukturen i skottlinjen

Yugoslavia - a European country with a demographic profile similar to Sweden´s - was subjected to heavy aerial attacks from Nato/USA in 1999. This report covers the civilian consequences and countermeasures during the war. It is based on interviews in Yugoslavia with leading representatives from the sectors of power supply, telecommunications, railway transport and fuel distribution. There appears to have been a considerable capacity for improvisation, not least in connection with the so-called soft bomb attacks on the power supply system. The capacity for information exchange between different groups of local representatives seems to have been less developed. The emphasis placed on improvisational skills was accompanied by a certain lack of appreciation of peacetime war planning activities. A party self-inflicted problem for the telecom sector was that the backup batteries were of a high performance/low robustness type. Under the unstable conditions of the war they broke down. Less modern but more robust equipment has now replaced them.