A French View of The Balkans: B.I. and Louis Dalmas
By Boba Borojevic
Anti-Serb biased: "It was the first large-scale manifestation of racism
since the Jewish Holocaust."
Paris, May 6, 2005 -- "Sine ira ac studio." Without anger or bias. These
words of advice of the great Roman historian Tacitus, have taken scarce few
when writing about the Balkans and the Serbs. Louis Dalmas, journalist and
writer described once how he saw media covering the Balkans: "During the
years as a professional journalist, I have never seen so many
stage-managements, such distortions of even basic facts, the high elevations
of poison in both the audio-visual and scribal media, the myriad fakeries
and the parades of untruths. With total scorn for ordinary decency, "the
Serbs" have been satanized while their adversaries were endowed with virtual
sainthood."
We contacted Mr. Dalmas on the occasion of the 100th issue of the "B.I."
magazine.
Mr. Dalmas please accept our congratulation on the occasion of the 100th
issue of the "Balkan Infos". Please tell our readers what "B.I." is?
"Balkans-Infos", which is now called "B. I." is a French-speaking monthly
magazine, published in Paris for more than eight years, available only on
subscription. It's 100th issue will be celebrated next may 21st, with a show
set up by some of our friends, tzigane music and a buffet provided for by
various sponsors, in an impressive meeting hall lent to us for the
circumstance by the mayor of the eleventh precinct of Paris.
B. I. is totally independent of political parties or government
organizations. Its editorial board merges right and left-wingers that have
agreed to fight three plagues of our modern world: American imperialism;
religious fanaticism; media manipulation.
With no strings attached, B. I. not only focuses on these three main
targets, but also offers a free opinion outlet to all those who cannot
express their views because of official pressure or censorship. Over the
years, it has become a reference in international affairs for people who
believe in truthful journalism.
Why did you become interested in the Balkans?
I have been a writer and journalist for many years, having interviewed
several heads of states for the leading French papers. I was the first
western correspondent to meet Tito after he broke with Stalin and left the
Kominform, and at that time I wrote a book on communist Yugoslavia, which
was honored with a long foreword by Jean-Paul Sartre. After that scoop, I
had no special reason to continue dealing with the Balkans, and I continued
my press career by launching and directing for ten years ender my name the
largest photo feature agency in the world. It was only in the mid-nineties,
with the explosion of Yugoslavia, that I again was interested by what was
happening in the Balkans, especially as my wife was of a Serbian family,
born in Belgrade. But until then, neither she nor I had any idea of the
tensions between the different republics and always considered she was just
a citizen of Yugoslavia.
Delving into the media accounts of events, I soon was struck by their
partiality. As an ordinary honest journalist, and with the elementary common
sense that in a conflict, no side is entirely black or white, I began to
wonder how only the Serbs could be a flock of drunken barbarians whereas
their enemies were all innocent virgins carrying flowers. From then on, it
was easy to pinpoint the propaganda exaggerations and lies, and to reach the
truth behind the brainwashing. I still am astonished today that so many
intellectuals, politicians or journalists didn't have the basic courage or
professionalism to do the same thing.
Serbs have been blamed for everything that happened in the Balkans.
You wrote in one of your articles: " The collective guilt assigned to "the
Serbs" is a case in point, trumpeted by the International Community since
the start of the Balkan crisis. This was the first large-scale manifestation
of racism since the Jewish Holocaust." And this kind of racism is manifested
at The Hague Tribunal. Is it not?
That's why I founded B. I. more than eight years ago. Since then, we have
published a real anthology of official contradictions, betrayed moral
values, and outright lies. The outcome of all the high aims of freedom,
democracy, justice, ethnic pluralism, anti-racism or peace, brandished by
the White House or Pentagon spin doctors to justify the crimes of the
western powers, has been their exact contrary: freedom has resulted in
economic ruin; democracy has been ridiculed by organized revolts, sham
elections or destitution of elected representatives of the people (as in
Republika Srbska); justice is flattened in the mud by the mock proceedings
of The Hague tribunal and the parody of the Milosevic trial ; ethnic
pluralism has been destroyed in Yugoslavia to give place to three of the
ethnically purest states of Europe : Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia ;
anti-racism has blossomed into anti-Serbian racism and ignorance of the
ustashi genocide of Serbs during the last world war ; peace has been
replaced by military massacres of civilians and a murderous chaos in Kosovo.
Everything the West pretends to stand for has turned out to be American
hegemonic strategy, political cynicism and fight for oil control.
What is the book " Ma Verite "('My Truth') by Slobodan Milosevic about? Why
did you decide to publish it? Where can it be purchased?
I decided to publish Milosevic's speech for the opening of his defense
period at the Hague tribunal, which he delivered on august 31 and September
1 2004, under the title "My truth", when I saw that his trial,
overwhelmingly splashed in the media as the "trial of the century" at the
start of the proceedings, had slowly been obliterated because of the
efficiency of his courageous defense. I am not in a position to judge his
political past, not being a Serb and not having lived in Yugoslavia, but I
feel that today his attitude in court is that of a brave man imbued with the
love of his country. The proof of this is in the book itself. It is neither
a work of memoirs, an autobiography or a defense plea. Milosevic does not
recognize the existence of the tribunal, and accordingly, he does not try to
defend himself. He is above that, and considers that the only important task
is to restore historical truth. The result is a remarkable expose of the
context of the Balkan wars, based upon facts, references and testimonies. It
is a highly valuable document, absolutely necessary to the understanding of
the events of the last decade in that part of Europe.
It can be purchased directly by ordering a copy by e-mail
([EMAIL PROTECTED]), www.b-i-infos.com, by letter (CAP 8, BP 391, 75869
Paris cedex 18, France) or by telex (00 33 1 42 23 07 30), with payment of
the equivalent of 15 euros. The book will be immediately sent by post to the
given address.
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Louis Dalmas is journalist and writer, founder and director of the monthly
magazine "B.I.". Author of several essays on philosophy and politics, among
which "Yugoslav communism", with a Preface by Jean-Paul Sartre, "Disorder
and Patience", and "The Asphyxiated thought".
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/borojevic/019.shtml
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
