Words that should be used by Milosevic
By Geoffrey Wasteneys February 20, 2002 I believe that Milosevic is doing a good job and I am sure the Nato powers will regret that they put him on trial. Had I been Milosevic, however, I should have said "Gentlemen (and Ladies) what would YOU have done if you were the President of a country, racked by Civil War that outside forces had clearly instigated and in which it was Serbians that, on every hand, stood to lose. In 1921 it was Serbians who gave up their name and National identity to join with those other South Slavs who had fought against them in the armies of Austria. In the 1939/45 War these traitors returned to German allegiance and made use of that circumstance to massacre some hundreds of thousands of Serbians (and Jews) for the crime of having a different religious opinion. King Alexander had done his best to unify Yugoslavia by altering the previous boundaries. Marshal; Tito, born a Croat and a Roman Catholic had created deliberately a number of enclaves with each a Serbian minority and the break up of Yugoslavia meant that these minorities would be physically and politically separated from the other Serbians. If a minority of Croats in Yugoslavia were to be permitted to separate surely the same right belonged to a minority of Serbians in Croatia. In Bosnia. Would you have stood idly by while the Serbians in Krajina and East and West Slavonia were to be denied the right of Yugoslavian citizenship while those special rights that they had enjoyed in Croatia for 400 years had been callously withdrawn? When the regime of President Tudjman had restored the symbols of the Ustashe regime of Pavelic at whose hands so many Serbians and Jews had perished in Jasenovac concentration camp in 1943/45? The Parliament of Yugoslavia, by majority vote had denied the right of secession to Slovenia and Croatia. The unwarranted intervention of the European Community had recognized them as separate nations (a status that they were to enjoy for the first time in their whole history while Serbia had a long and honourable history of independence). The effect of the recognition of these two new States was to, not only destroy a Nation that had been created in 1920 in response to the policies of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, but to further weaken Serbia by the detachment of a large number of its citizens, first in Croatia and subsequently in Bosnia. It will go on record that it was the action of Slovenes, Croats and Bosnian Muslims that brought about a state of anarchy in which dreadful things are certain to be done. It is equally true that the first acts of aggression were in each case, by Slovenes, Croats and Bosnian Muslims and against Serbians. Had I failed to take action to protect the interest of my fellow countrymen in this appalling situation I would have encountered and deserved the censure of all Serbians and the world. How curious that in 1995 my services were eagerly sought to bring about the Dayton Accord and my photograph was published in Time magazine, citing me as "Man of the Year", but scarcely a few months later I became the target on invective from the U.S. State Department. How did it come about that I was censured for the actions of the JNA in Bosnia and called upon to withdraw it and its armaments to Serbia, but only a short time later the New army of Croatia equipped by Germany and trained by former U.S. Generals was operating openly in Bosnia.? Why has the figure of 7,000 dead Muslims at Srebenica became a constantly quoted statistic when it is clear that there is no substantiation for that figure? Why is it that the world Press has drawn no attention to the actions of the Croat REGULAR ARMY at Mostar where the deaths of Muslims were greater than at Srebenica? Why has so much nonsense been written about damage at Dubrovnik art the hands of Serbians when eyewitnesses tell an entirely different story? In 1989 when I made that oft repeated statement" you shall not be beaten anymore" it was in the context of life in Kosovo for Serbians under the constitution provided by Marshall Tito that made it a Semi-independent Republic in Yugoslavia. His objective had been to form an anti-cominform Bloc made up of Yugoslavia and Albania in order to promote his own style on mild communism, bereft of collectivization of agriculture. He was unable to get an agreement with Hoxa, but in furtherance of his original objective, had refused to allow Serbians who had been ejected from Kosovo by the Germans and Italians, to return. A substantial amount of Yugoslavian tax money was devoted to Kosovo and, among other matters it financed the construction of the largest University in Yugoslavia at Pristina, with a student body of 40,000. Teaching was in Albanian and both text books and teachers were brought from there. The result was a wave of Albanian nationalism and a great influx of illegal immigrants from Albania that was accelerated by the financial crisis in that country related to the pyramid scandal. The Serbian population, amounting to less than 400,000 suffered from deliberate discrimination and it was evident that the objective was to drive them out of the lands that held all the principal historic structures in Serbia; churches, monasteries and similar structures.in Kosovo were, in fact, as sacred to Serbians as the Holy Land to the Jews. This was of no account to Tito whose background was wholly in Roman Catholic Croatia. Serbian parents stated that their daughters were sexually molested on their way to and from school. The explanation was given that Muslims are strictly forbidden from sexual relations, out of marriage, with true believers. In consequence they turned to Christian women for relief from concupicence. It was obvious that protection was imperative for the Serbians. The solution was to return the constitution that made Kosovo an integral part of Yugoslavia. It should be noted that developments in Kosovo were the key that turned in the lock of Yugoslavian unity. Slovenia and Croatia, both with substantially higher national income per capita than Serbia (and vastly higher than for Kosovo and Bosnia) objected strongly to the divergence of tax revenues to Kosovo It was, in great part, to avoid this financial drain that they concluded to separate. When they did so they explained their action as in order to avoid the impact of "Greater Serbia". This suggested that Milosevic was intending to carry out a similar changes in the constitutions of their States. In fact, all that took place was a return to Serbia of what had always been an integral part of its territory and its area of first settlement. I would suggest that the Court review the history of Albania and the known character of Albanians with their historic blood feuds and traditional association with smuggling and violence. The Encyclopedia Britannica once described them as "persons who are most liked by those that have never met them". The result of the constitutional change was to displace certain Albanian public servants that refused to comply with new regulations. Serbians, once more secured protection from Serbian police officers. The Albanian response was to refuse to pay taxes, or for electricity and to avoid the licensing of vehicles. The burgeoning Albanian population of Kosovo is partly due to the highest net reproduction rate in Europe, partly to uncontrolled immigration from Albania. It should be noted that about 20% of The Albanians are Christian, both Roman Catholic and Orthodox. Good relations were current between many Albanians and Serbians. The presence of a small but well organized group of extreme nationalists was the source of most problems. In essence, The Government of Yugoslavia was not attempting to drive Albanians out of Serbia, but rather to prevent the Serbians from being ejected against their will. Subsequent developments have shown that the threat was very real. I wonder how the Justices would react if a similar adverse development took place in their own Nation? A Civil War is the worst of wars, but it becomes far worse when outside parties intervene, generally in pursuit of their own objectives. Written by Geoffrey Wasteneys 259 Faircrest Road Ottawa, Ontario K1H 5C9 Tel 613 7336152 Fax: 613 733 5194
