The infernal logic of the one-nation state
THE idea underlying the various negotiated schemes for dividing up the war-torn former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina is that of creating nation states dominated by one ethnic group, and this is the interpretation that has ex-YUGOSLAVIA been given to the term "self-determination of peoples". The same logic was at work first in the contacts between
Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic and Croatia's Franjo Tudjman, and then on May 6 of this year in the negotiations between the leaders of the Serb and Croat nationalists of Bosnia.
limitless extension of the rights of "minorities" , to make frontiers open with multiple citizenship rights or even better by the formation of a Balkan confederation of multi-ethnic and democratic states — pluralist in terms of culture and rights. Such a solution cannot be imposed by war, and still less by an
CATHERINE VERLA S UCH negotiations, which assume in advance that Serbs and Croats cannot live together, take place at the expense of the Muslims, the only ones until now to defend the notion of a single republic of three peoples with rights not determined on a territorial basis. They have also taken place against the express wishes of tens of thousands of peace demonstrators who have defended the multi-ethnic approach and who created in April the People's Assembly for Public Salvation, which was rapidly dispersed by the forces of war.
Europe's pseudo-solution
The European Community, by supporting the pseudo-solution of ethnic cantonization, has, even in the kindest interpretation, been taken in by the Croat and Serb nationalist logic. The meaning of cantonization is to carry through at local level the logic of attempting to protect rights by creating ethnically pure cantons, which would then come together to join Serboslavia or Greater Croatia at a later stage. The combination of the recognition of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH) as a sovereign state and the cantonization plan only added fuel to the fire it was supposed to put out.
At each stage of the developing crisis the "civilized world" has taken the worst possible positions and contributed to the upward spiral of violence. First of all there was support for a centralist federalism and rejection of the expressions of a desire for sovereignty by the republics - who were then pushed into making a disorderly series of independence declarations, according to the principle of everyone for themselves. Then, there was the stage of recognizing the independence of this or that republic without any coherent overall principled approach to the complex national questions throughout the Yugoslav space. Before too long war in Serbia's subjugated Albanian province of Kosovo and the explosion of Macedonia will confront the EEC with the obvious reality: there is no way to separately find effective solutions to the national questions of what was once Yugoslavia, which would avoid carnage and a general regional conflagration.
### Untouchable frontiers
There are, furthermore, no principles about untouchable frontiers or about who is or is not a people that gives the right to insist that a group that feels itself, rightly or wrongly, threatened by living in a state it does not consider "its living in a state it does not consider "its
", should separate.
The only way to avoid an unending challenging of existing frontiers is the outside intervention by NATO or the new "Europe" beyond the control of the people who live in the region.
There have recently been a number of encouraging developments in the fight against the prime mover in the conflict; the Greater Serbia project and its logic. These include
• the demonstrations of some tens of thousands of people called by peace and opposition groups in Belgrade at the start of June;
• the courageous decision of two Serbs, Nemad Kemanovic of the Reformist Party and Mirko Pejanovic of the Socialist Party (the former Communist Party, to rejoin the presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, boycotted by the Serbs since the creation of the so-called "Serb Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina" last March. They have come out in favour of the "independence, indivisibility and territorial integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina" and disowned the policies of the mad psychiatrist Radovan Karadzic, the local leader of the Serb militia.
• the possibility of the Federal army and the Serb authorities disengaging from the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina. There are a number of factors pushing them in this direction; first and foremost, the desire to keep open the possibility of international recognition of the Yugoslav federation of Serbia and Montenegro, proclaimed on April 27,
3 1. Le Monde, June 3, 1992.
June 22, 1992 •
ex-YUGOSLAVIA and ensure that it keeps the positions in international institutions held by the former Yugoslavia. There is also the likelihood that Milosevic and the army will lose control of their temporary allies on the ground in Bosnia.
A sort of division of labour has operated between the far right nationalist groups of V. Seselj and Karadzic's party and the army and Serbian regime. The forces associated with the neo-fascist Paraga, are also part of the reality which feeds the actions of the Serb paramilitaries supported by the villagers. All such forces have to be disarmed as the army is forced to retreat.
But the bedrock of this war is the logic of the (single) nation-state and above all that of Greater Serbia, and it is this which must be directly challenged. Tomorrow we may well seewar break out in Serbia's Albanian-populated province, Kosovo, and how they respond to the Kosovo question will show what the Serb opposition to Milosevic is worth * 2. Libération, June 3, 1992. 3. Le Monde, June 4, 1992.
latter have acted as a strong rearguard with clean hands, supplying the paramilitaries. This game is turning out to be an expensive one, with the economic blockade which may sharpen social discontent in Serbia.
While the patriotic reflex of the "nation unjustly attacked" can be powerful, this does not mean, as the demonstrations have shown, that all Serbs identify with a war in which they also have been victims. The hundreds of thousands of refugees and the issue of deserters effect all families and communities. We may soon seen former allies turn on one another; the high command of the Yugoslav army have expressed their readiness to give up their arms to the Bosnian government? rather than to the Serb militia in Bosnia, who are demanding them. In BH itself, differences between city and village Serbs are becoming increasingly sharply apparent. It must be remembered that 60% of Serb soldiers in the former federal army come from outside Serbia, particularly from the rural areas of BH. This has also allowed the army to withdraw soldiers who are not from BH while still leaving important contingents behind.
It is from these rural areas, with their centuries long warrior traditions, that the far right draws its forces. To remove legitimacy from the acts of barbarism committed in the name of the defence of "Serb interests", ', Serbs themselves will have to dissociate themselves from the Greater Serbia project. In order to move towards this all those responsible for the war (not only Milosevic) must be exposed and the criticism of the thinking behind Greater Serbia, including the way it has been adopted by the opposition, pushed through consistently.
### UN makes discovery
The UN report on Bosnia-Herzegovina rightly states that "Serbia is not solely responsible for the war"3 - and the media have naively reiterated this "discovery". The secret negotiations mentioned above between Croat and Serb far right currents, the political evolution of the HDZ (Croat nationalist) party in BH, which is close to Croatia's president 4 military organization controlled by Tudjman, towards the creation of a para-
Serbia: talk of a military coup
AS THE bombs continued to fall on the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, mangling without distinction all that city's starved inhabitants, be they Serbs, Croats or Bosnian Muslims, the population of Serbia and Montenegro are beginning to experience rationing due to the international trade embargo.
The political impact is already perceptible in the Serbian capital,
Belgrade. The consciousness of the ordinary citizen has been struck both by such things as the lack of petrol and the expulsion of the country's football team from the European championship.
Subjected to demented official propaganda, which exalts the martyrdom of the "chosen people, descended from the heavens"
Serbian public opinion has been led to believe that Serbia is "the last rampart holding back Islam in the east and the fascist Catholics in the west". They were confirmed in the belief that Milosevic's prowar policy enjoyed solid international support by the confused policy of the Europeans and American benevolence. United Nations resolution 757, which was supported by such historic friends as France and "Mother Russia", has ripped through the veil of lies, illusions and Serb national exaltation. The population has suddenly discovered that their country is an international outcast, its government a nest of criminals and its army a band of murderers.
The disorientation of the regime's popular base is evidenced by the lack of demonstrations in its support. Some physical assaults, threats of attacks on the westerners and other minor forms of political gangsterism have been the only spontaneous expressions in favour of the regime.
With a presentiment of a social explosion in the short term, the opposition has announced the organization of a general strike and demonstrations "from June 15 until the fall of the regime". Milosevic, who has just won the parliamentary elections, has grasped the danger he is in. The slogan "all the Serbs in a single country" - used to justify annexations of areas of neighbouring states - is no longer cited as a government priority, although it has been taken up by the Orthodox Church.
In a statement on British television, the dictator even held out the possibility that he would resign if this were the price for the ending of the economic sanctions. He has denied any governmental responsibility for the current bombing of Sarajevo.
This may not be a complete lie, insofar as the destruction of the Bosnian capital provided the pretext for the United Nations forces to occupy Sarajevo airport. This operation, which has been voted through by the UN Security Council, will mean in the coming week the deployment of a thousand UN troops and implies a complete clearout of all artillery from a 30 kilometre radius around the airport.
If the Serb formations that have arisen out of the disintegration of the army do not retreat, there will almost inevitably be a clash with the UN forces.
In Belgrade, meanwhile, a bitter, if shadowy, factional struggle has been apparent. Belgrade citizens, hanging on the telephone, are ruling nothing out, not even a military coup. — Slavko Mihajlcek, June 10, 1992. *
International Viewpoint # 231 • June 22, 1992
EUROPE