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You could drive a
truck through all these allegations. Stella
The 'Balkan Mirror' From Aug. 15-17, Michael Djordjevich, first president of the Serbian Unity Congress, presented a three-part Op-Ed series in The Washington Times attempting to draw a parallel between events in the Middle East today and events in the Balkans in the early 1990s. The upshot of his "Balkan Mirror" argument is that the specter of "Islamic fundamentalism," which threatens the West today, is the same force which beginning in Bosnia brought about the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Unfortunately, several key facts go missing in Mr. Djordjevich's account of events. First, the Yugoslav conflict began, not in Bosnia, but rather in the predominantly Catholic republics of Slovenia and Croatia almost a year earlier, when they declared their independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia in 1991. Their secession had little to do with religion, but rather with the spirit of freedom sweeping across Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the heavy-handed efforts of Slobodan Milosevic, the Serb-nationalist Yugoslav president, to maintain centralized control. Milosevic, in addition to repositioning the Serb-dominated Yugoslav National Army (JNA), also whipped up nationalistic fervor among Serbs in those republics. The conflict in Slovenia was brief and Milosevic let it go, but in Croatia, Milosevic urged the Croatian Serbs to fight against the alleged specter of an "Ustashe" state referring back to the pro-Nazi Croatian nationalism of the World War II. Under this cloak of propaganda and Serb nationalism, Milosevic began his war to prevent Croatian independence and maintain Serb influence. These events notwithstanding, Mr. Djordjevich begins his account of the Yugoslav war in Bosnia where, seemingly out of the blue at a wedding party, "several Christian Serbs" were shot by "Muslim fundamentalists." What Mr. Djordjevich failed to mention was that the city of Sarajevo was already surrounded by Serb-led JNA soldiers, in dug-in positions, complete with artillery. Just as in Croatia, Slobodan Milosevic had already begun preparations for the war and simply used the aforementioned shooting as a provocation. And similar to the Ustashe threat in Croatia, he used the alleged threat of a "fundamentalist Islamic state" in Bosnia. But contrary to Milosevic's claims, and Mr. Djordjevich's "Balkan Mirror" characterization, Bosnian society prior to the war was not characterized by the "Islamic fundamentalism" facing the West today. Like the United States, Bosnia was a mixed society where Catholic churches, mosques, and Serbian churches were often within a block or two of one another. There was a healthy supply of doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other professionals. Mixed marriages proliferated and young women and men in Western dress paraded down the streets of Sarajevo and other cities on Friday and Saturday night, frequenting the myriad restaurants, clubs, and cafes. Culture flourished, with opera, concerts, sporting events, and film festivals. Many West Europeans traveled there for vacation. When the war started in Bosnia, many Bosnian citizens could not believe it when their own JNA began firing artillery into marketplaces, intentionally killing women and children, and beginning the worst program of systematic genocide since World War II all in the heart of Europe. When the West hesitated to help, but instead imposed an arms embargo against Bosnia reducing its capability for self-defense, Bosnia was forced to accept assistance from wherever it could, including some Islamic countries. The fact that some of these countries used this tragedy to their own advantage cannot be held against the Bosnians fighting for their survival. And, unlike Mr. Djordjevich's comparison to "radical fundamentalism" of today, Bosnians initiated no terrorist actions or suicide bombings to terrorize Serbian citizens in Belgrade?even while their own citizens were being terrorized and murdered in Sarajevo, Srebrenica, and other cities. Mr. Djordjevich's omission of key facts causes the image he sees in his "Balkan Mirror" to be distorted. He neglected to mention the scores of Bosnian Serbs including a well-known general who disagreed with Milosevic's war of aggression and fought with their fellow Bosnian citizens against the JNA. Were Mr. Djordjevich to look at his "Balkan Mirror"
through the lens of historical perspective rather than that of Serb nationalism,
he would see that the "radical fundamentalist" image presented begins to
resemble, not Bosnians, but rather those whom he is defending.
ARIJANA HARRIS Alexandria |
