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Archive : ISG Pamphlets : War in the Balkans
The Murder of Bosnia - Preface
As we write Bosnia is slowly being murdered. It is being carved up round the Geneva conference table whilst the Serb forces tighten their stranglehold on Sarajevo. The murderers are many. They are Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and his Croatian counter-part Franjo Tudjman. They include Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his Croat counterpart Mate Boban. They are also Serbian general Ratko Mladic, fascists such as Cetnik leader Vojislav Seselj and Zeljko Raznatovic (‘Arkan’), leader of ‘the Tigers’ paramilitary group, responsible for some of the first rapes of Muslim women and the murder of 3,000 civilians near the north-eastern Bosnian town of Brcko. They could not have acted without friends in high places. Those morally responsible for the destruction of Bosnia — the real murderers of Bosnia — are David Owen, Cyrus Vance, Thorwald Stoltenberg, John Major, Bill Clinton, Francois Mitterand, Helmut Kohl and every other western leader. They can now feel proud that they have finally forced Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic to agree to the division of Bosnia — a division that can only be put into practice by even greater ‘ethnic cleansing’, by the uprooting of all those Bosnians who refuse to accept the division of their country along ethnic lines, by further massacres . They can now feel proud that they appear to have finally imposed Milosevic’s and Tudjman’s ‘solution’ on the Bosnian people. They can feel proud that they have forced Izetbegovic to abandon his defence of a multi-national, multi-ethnic Bosnia in favour of a Muslim state and army. David Owen may be embarrassed about the haste with which Radovan Karadzic claimed that the Geneva plans were virtually identical to those of the reactionary Serb forces he commands but he cannot deny that Geneva represents a triumph for Milosevic and his plans for a Greater Serbia. The cynicism with which western leaders have behaved is breath-taking. The reality of the ‘New World Order’ is starkly revealed. The right to self-determination, which these leaders claimed to be defending in Kuwait, is shown to be a lie. Bosnia, unlike Kuwait, does not have oil. As a result the right of Bosnia — a sovereign member of the United Nations — to self-determination can be conveniently ignored by western leaders acting in the name of the United Nations! The legal, elected government of Bosnia (however much we disagree with its politics it is the legal government) is reduced to a ‘warring faction’, on a par with the Serb Cetniks and the Croat HVO. One can imagine the outcry from Major or Douglas Hurd if the British government and its army of occupation in the North of Ireland were to be described — with much more justification — as a ‘warring faction’. The multi-national, multiethnic composition of Izetbegovic’s government is denied. It is portrayed as a ‘Muslim’ government. Western politicians have insisted that the war in Bosnia is a ‘civil war’. They refused to characterise it as a legitimate war of defence by the Bosnian people against Serbian — and, later, Croatian — aggression. To do so would, of course, call into question their refusal to allow the Bosnians to defend themselves. Douglas Hurd’s infamous phrase that allowing the Bosnians to arm themselves would only create ‘a level killing field’ has meant the Bosnian resistance has had to fight against tanks, planes, missile launchers, armoured vehicles, heavy artillery and the whole gamut of modem weaponry with rifles. The western leaders shed crocodile tears over the fate of Bosnia, whilst simultaneously preparing its destruction. Every single plan advanced by the west encouraged further Serb attacks. Every single plan encouraged Tudjman and Boban to grab as much of Bosnia as they could. Every single plan sent clear signals that the west would allow the carve-up of Bosnia. Socialist Outlook argued that the United Nations could not defend Bosnia. We have been proved right. UNPROFOR forces have stood by and allowed ‘ethnic cleansing’, whilst refusing to help injured civilians. UN aid agencies have been more concerned with publicity than actually helping the people of Bosnia. Whilst locally organised aid groups were able to get supplies to the besieged population the UN chose to drive up roads they knew were controlled by Cetnik forces. As a result the Bosnian people starved. The UN refused to allow the opening of Tuzla airport. They claimed that it would not be safe. Yet at the same time they were making meaningless gestures of trying to bring aid through Sarajevo. Serb forces would only have been able to hit Tuzla with heavy artillery — in Sarajevo they could rely on rifles! Perhaps their reluctance to use Tuzla was because it remains the most multi-national, multi-ethnic and overwhelmingly working class region of Bosnia, encompassing over one million people who continue to resist the nationalist division of their country. The priorities of the UN can be seen in the contents of the convoy that finally broke through Cetnik lines. It contained 30 tons of food, 60 tons of camera equipment and Kate Adie! Clinton’s threats — as yet not acted on- to use aerial attacks on Serb artillery are not designed to defend the territorial integrity of Bosnia. On the contrary, they are designed to ensure the division takes place as soon as possible. We are totally opposed to any US or NATO attacks on Serb positions, or Serbia itself. Such attacks will only lead to a strengthening of reaction throughout the Balkans and increase the dependence of the newly emerging Balkan states on the west. The ordinary people of Serbia will pay the price, as they have already paid for the west’s economic embargo. Massive inflation and over 50% unemployment have hit the Serbian working class. In the meantime profiteers and gangsters such as Jezdmir Vasiljevic, owner of the Jugoskandic bank in Belgrade, have amassed enormous profits, allowing him to make a private fortune and finance Serb paramilitary forces. Today Milosevic and Tudjman participate in the Geneva talks. But why are they there if the war in Bosnia is a ‘civil war’? What right have Milosevic and Tudjman to participate in talks concerning a sovereign state? They are there, of course, because every western leader has always known that the war in Bosnia is a war of aggression against the multi-national, multi-ethnic state by Milosevic and Tudjman. They are there because the western leaders know full well that Milosevic and Tudjman agreed on the carve-up of Bosnia at a meeting in Karadjordjevo, Vojvodina in March 1991 — six months before the war with Slovenia began! Above all they are there because the western leaders believe Milosevic and Tudjman offer the best hope of stability. That is why there are no longer threats to bring Milosevic and Karadzic to trial as war criminals. Today they are ‘statesmen’ necessary for stability. That is much more important than the fate of the Bosnian people. This is realpolitik at its most nauseating. Whilst the Serb and Croat butchers have massacred all those opposed to their nationalist policies the left in the west has stood idly by. Some have naively believed that the UN — the same UN that slaughtered the people of Iraq, the same UN that has invaded Somalia — could bring peace to Bosnia. The results of UN intervention are there for all to see. Others have wrung their hands and said everything is terrible but there is nothing we can do. Others, like the Socialist Workers Party and Militant Labour have argued that this is simply a war between reactionary nationalisms and we can’t take sides. They can understand the need to oppose fascism and racism in Britain but not in the Balkans. The activities of a few skin-heads and football hooligans mobilised by the British National Party are seen as more important than the rise of the strongest fascist party in Europe, the Serbian Radical Party of Vojislav Seselj. Yet others, like the Revolutionary Communist Party, support Milosevic. To her credit liberal journalist Maggie O’Kane of The Guardian has shown more understanding of the role of Milosevic and his ally Seselj than must of the far-left in Britain. According to Gordana Knezivic, the Serb deputy editor of the Sarajevo daily paper Oslobodenje, which has not missed a single issue since the war began, a testimony to the commitment of its multi-national staff to a multi-national and multi-ethnic Bosnia,: "When Radovan Karadzic hit Bosnian Muslims he was speaking for those British that did not like blacks in Victoria station but couldn’t admit it". The British far-left would be well advised to take her words on board. Socialist Outlook is proud that, with few exceptions (Workers Press and, belatedly, Workers Power) we have stood almost alone on the British far left at the side of all those forces in Bosnia who reject the logic of ‘ethnic cleansing’. We are proud that we have tried, with our small forces, to defend Bosnia from Serbian, Croatian and imperialist aggression. We are proud that we have played a role, however small, in attempting to build international solidarity with the Bosnian people. We are proud that we are playing a role in raising practical aid for the Bosnian people through building the Workers’ Aid for Bosnia convoy. We are proud that whilst defending the right to self-determination in Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Kosova we have stood out against reactionary nationalism that tries to create ethnically pure states. We feel no pride in being proved right by the criminal destruction of Bosnia engineered by Major, Clinton, Mitterand and co. We feel no pride in knowing that the victory of the idea of ethnically pure states will lead to further wars of aggression against Macedonia and Kosova. But we do know that when such wars begin we will be on the side of the people of Macedonia and Kosova, whilst Major and Clinton will still be encouraging Milosevic, Seselj and Arkan — their partners in crime in the murder of Bosnia. Second impression - 12 August 1993
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Geoff Ryan