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Title: Yugoslavia: Whose bloody war? Author: Andrew Flood Date: 1993 Language: en Topics: former Yugoslavia, war, Workers Solidarity Source: Retrieved on 10th October 2021 from http://struggle.ws/ws93/yugoslavia.html Notes: Published in Workers Solidarity No. 38 — Spring 1993.
The war in what was Yugoslavia continues to drag on, with an ever
increasing toll of people terrorized from their homes, killed or
imprisoned. Most ordinary people are disgusted at the failure of the EC
to do anything about it. Yet is EC or UN involvement any sort of answer
or would it just make the situation worse.
The breakup of Yugoslavia has been attributed to many sources from the
absurd to the racist (Slavs can’t deal with democracy). In fact the
drive for independence and Serbia’s reaction against it were fuelled by
a number of concrete factors. Croatia with a relatively high GNP in
Yugoslavia, wanted independence so it would not have to subsidise its
poorer neighbour, Serbia. Naturally Serbia was opposed to Croatian
independence for the same reasons and so there was an economic basis for
the ethnic tensions that arose. The leaders of the Communist Party
exploited these ethnic tension to serve their own ends when the Leninist
economy started to collapse in the late ’80’s.
One noticeable feature of the various republics is how they are all
dominated politically by those who once ruled Yugoslavia together.
Although some senior ex-communist party members are in the governments
of all the eastern European countries but in Yugoslavia they are
virtually unchallenged. Fuelling ethnic prejudices and finding
scapegoats helped them to remain in control of Croatia and Bosnia in
particular, but also played a significant part in Serbia. The roots of
this strategy to retain power date back to the start of the collapse of
Leninism in Yugoslavia with the strike waves of 1987–89.
We do not oppose the recognition of Croatia and the other republics.
Anarchists want to get rid of all national borders but this must be
because this is what is wanted by the population. It is hard to be sure
that before the war most Croatians or Bosnians wanted the break up of
Yugoslavia. However given the ferocity of the war it is likely that most
want nothing to do with Serbia now. The divisions that now exist between
the workers of the different republics will not be overcome through
forced integration under Serbia. The seeds of hatred that are now being
sown will be reaped as usual by the bosses, in the form of higher
profits. It is opposition to these same bosses that will unite workers
of all the republics.
Even the mainstream media admits European bosses and in particular
German ones played a prominent role in encouraging the break up of the
federation. To German bosses, Croatia and Bosna promise new markets and
sources of cheap labour. They are also providing a useful mechanism for
the German ruling class to argue for a return to a more aggressive
foreign policy. Intervention in Croatia offers the promise of
rehabilating a more aggressive strain of German imperialism, which has
been forced to lie dormant since the second world war. German’s
strongarming of the EC to recognise Croatia’s independence provides an
example of how dominant a united Germany is now likely to be. Until June
of 1991 both Britain and the US blocked recognition of any secession
from Yugoslavia.
The fact that the European bosses took sides early on is reflected in
the media coverage of the war. The cause of the war is presented soley
in terms of Serbian aggression against a seris of otherwise peaceful
republics. In fact right from the start of the conflict the Croatia was
organising “ethnic cleansing” in the area it controlled, and trying to
snatch control of areas it did not. The comparative success of Serbia
has much to do with its control over the existing army and munitions.
There is little to suggest that if any of the other republics had
similar resources that they too would not have played the same role.
The fact that part of the Croatian forces are composed of an independent
militia (HOS) that has adopted the name and uniform of the World War 11
Nazi collaborators who committed horrific atrocities is seldom commented
on. The deliberate killing by Bosnian forces of two French UN soldiers
is also something many papers have not reported on. The Bosnians also
had admitted shelling the UN building in Sarajevo in the hope that the
Serbians would be blamed. A couple of reports of Croatian murder of Serb
civilians have been carried but overall the impression created is one of
poor Croatia (and now Bosnia) being ravaged by
fascist/communist/non-European Serbia.
More recently horror stories have emerged of Serbian forces using rape
as an instrument of terror in Bosnia. This organised and horrific use of
rape as a weapon has not been seen in Europe since World War two. The
Bosnian government claimed 14,000 have been raped (Guardian 11/1/93). In
the West the bosses only concern is to use this as another propaganda
weapon in building support for UN/EC intervention in Yugoslavia. However
statements by feminist and pacifist groups based in both Zagreb and
Belgrade have condemned this as such propaganda has as its aim
“not the protection of women’s rights and well-being, but the use of
women for war propaganda and the intensification of ethnic and
nationalist hatred. Women’s suffering is being turned into an excuse for
possible escalation of military action.”
Women in Black against War, SOS Hotline (Belgrade anti-war group and
victims phone helpline).
“We fear that the raped women could be used in political propaganda with
the aim of spreading hatred and revenge, thus leading to further
violence against women and to further victimization of survivors”.
Women from: “Independent Alliance of Women of Croatia”, “Autonomous
Women’s House”, “Informative-documentary Center for Women”, “Antiwar
Campaign Croatia”, “Zagreb Women’s Lobby” and “Center for the Support to
Women Victims of War and Raped Women” in November 1992.
Indeed the idea of the U.S. army coming to the rescue is something of a
tasteless joke given the record of this army in all the wars it has been
involved in, most recently the Gulf War where a large proportion of U.S.
women soldiers claimed to have been raped by other U.S. troops. The
bosses in all the western countries see rape as a minor crime, the
sentences their courts hand out class rape alongside shoplifting rather
than more serious crimes. Over the last decade most of the western
governments have been trying to roll back the limited gains won by
women. Are we now to belive these governments have any interest in
protecting women in any of the former Yugoslav republics.
The problem with any EC or UN intervention in the region is that it
would be acting in the interests of those powers that control the UN and
the EC. They would attempt to impose a solution which favoured them, not
one which would bring lasting peace. The slaughter of the Gulf War, when
200,000 Iraqis were killed, should be enough of a warning of the
possible consequences of UN intervention.The hypocrisy of the
governments who claim they are there to keep the peace is exposed when
it comes to refugees. Thousands of people from all the republics have
been forced to flee their homes. Many of these are trying to leave the
country yet the governments of Europe are keeping most of them
out..Ireland has only taken in 200!
Calling for UN/EC intervention in the region will not bring peace one
day closer. It will, however, provide the imperialist powers with
support next time they want to go in somewhere else. Ever since the
defeats inflicted on US imperialism in Vietnam is has been less keen to
go in elsewhere. Bush referred to the successful US attack on tiny
Grenada as having “kicked the Vietnam syndrome”. At the moment the west
is using Somalia and Yugoslavia as corner stones of its new world order
and this is being accepted by those who previously opposed US involvment
in Central America.
The cold war served the west well as it enabled it to unite most of its
own population against the common enemy of “communism”.It seemed
unlikely that the west could use the threat of third world dictators
like Saddam Hussein, or the Serbians in a similar fashion. Yet it seems
to be working even better than the cold war. “Liberal imperialism” is
coming back into fashion in a big way. Those who support western
intervention in Somalia or Yugoslavia to-day will be unable to oppose
such intervention elsewhere tomorrow. EC/UN intervention in Bosnia is
every bit as much about the creation of a new world order as was the
slaughter of the Gulf war.
Peace in what was Yugoslavia can only come from one of two sources. The
first is the most unwelcome in which the war is played out to its bloody
end, such a peace is likely to be very short lived. The second is if the
people of the republics force an end to the war. Already strong peace
movements have emerged in Serbia, what is needed is a peace movement
that can build strikes and mass demonstrations which either overthrow
the current regimes or scare them into calling off the war.
This needs to be a movement which spreads across all the republics. It
must recognise the right of any republic to cecede from the federation
where it has been democratically established this is what the population
wish. The rights of the minorities in each republic must also be
respected, and such a movement needs to physically defend any minorities
that are there from “ethnic cleansing “ operations.
Sizable peace movements do exist and demonstrations have occurred in
Belgrade and Sarajevo, numbering tens if not hundreds of thousands. On
April 6^(th) a large anti-war demonstration was fired on in Sarajevo.
Our role in the rest of Europe should be to campaign against any
imperialist intervention through the EC or UN and to demand the
withdrawal of what forces have been deployed. We should also support any
movement in the region which campaigns against the war and encourage it
along more militant lines. Finally and quite concretely we must fight
for the doors to be opened to all refugees from any of the republics.
War is a regular and integral part of capitalism as ruling classes fight
it out for access to raw materials, resources etc. There will be no
lasting peace anywhere until the conditions are created for such a peace
by abolishing capitalism. Otherwise we face a future full of
Yugoslavias. On a world scale there have only been a handful of days “of
peace” since the end of World War 11.