Syndicate: The European pariah

[Dejan Sretenovic <dejansr@yubc.net>]

                                                             
The European pariah
 

Few days ago, we got forwarded on the list an article entitled "Milosevic's
Willing Executioners" from the The New Republic by Stacy Sulliven.
It discusses a popular issue these days - "a lack of guilt within the Serbs".

Stacy Sulliven is, obviously, an experienced and well informed Balkan
correspondent and the most of her's observations (Srebrenica, civil protests,
sense of victimization) are indisputable. But sometimes, when trying to
explain reasons for Serbian indifference towards Serbs crimes against humanity
committed in Bosnia and Kosovo, she fells deeply into anthropological simplifications
with racist overtones. The title of the article speaks for itself. She
is quite aware of the fact that "the very notion of collective guilt is
uncomfortable" with the concept of the international war crimes tribunal
which is based on the assumption that only individuals, not whole societies,
are responsible for the crimes against humanity. But, she simply couldn't
resist to trace certain correspondences between the conduct of ordinary
Germans towards the Jews and of ordinary Serbs towards Albanians. Collective
guilt does not exist as a notion in the international law and, as we have
experienced from the Hague tribunal's institution of legal actions against
war criminals in ex-Yugoslavia, individual involvement in each crime is
traceable and measurable. The same procedure has been applied to all those
Serbs, Croats and Muslims who ordered or executed massacres against civilians
or PoW. But, collective responsibility, whether described in terms of indifference,
silence or denial is a complex question to deal with. German nation, which
brought Hitler to power through elections, has not been put on the trial
for Nazi crimes, but Hitler's associates and responsible military men couldn't
escape from it. Even today, Germans treat Nazi past with respectable self-consciousness
thus making post war generations fully informed on this dark period of
German history. But, the spectre of crimes against humanity is back on
the stage again with NATO aggression on Yugoslavia and Shroeder's administration
shares responsibility for it, together with political leaders from other
NATO countries. And no one is to blame ordinary German or American citizens
for being indifferent, silent or supportive in this situation. It is up
to each nation involved in this war to measure the responsibility of its
own decision makers and their "willing executioners". Besides, there's
Hague tribunal to conduct an investigation and bring to justice those accused
for war crimes. But, it is hard to believe that anyone from NATO countries
involved in the war will be brought for trial. Allied Forces committed
numerous crimes against Iraqi civilians under the mandate of UN and yet
no one is called responsible. Collateral damage is never accounted for
war crime. It seems that UN preceded NATO in adoption of the old Macchiavelistic
rule: the end justifies the means.

Even today sober and well informed people in the West are aware of the
fact that exodus of Albanians started with and not before the aggression.
I remember the press conference by Milan Milutinovic, President of Serbia,
given at the Yugoslav embassy in Paris, after the failure of Paris peace
talks. Asked by foreign journalist to comment on the assumption that amassment
of Serbian forces in Kosovo aims to launch an attack on KLA, he confirmed,
adding that previous agreements between Yugoslavia and international institutions
will cease to exist in case of NATO attack "We have the right to defend
our country by all possible means", he said, "including the elimination
of terrorists". The humanitarian catastrophe was on the way and all those
familiar with the situation cannot claim they could not have foreseen it.
Like, Gen. Wesley Clark who openly expressed his "fear" that the attack
on Yugoslavia might provoke Serbian revenge over Albanians in Kosovo. It
looks like Milosevic acted as Clinton's "willing executioner". But, the
dock at Hague tribunal has been booked in advance exclusively for Yugoslav
president and his associates and not for NATO generals and those KLA guerillas
responsible for atrocities against Serbian civilians (including ethnical
cleansing of Serbs from the territories KLA used to control). This policy
of double war crimes standards has already undermined the authority of
the Hague tribunal in the eyes of small countries with no influence on
the international affairs.

After total failure of NATO propaganda aiming to raise revolt in Serbia
against Milosevic's policy of ethnical cleansing, the satanization of the
whole nation started to grow. First days of war, Robin Cook stated that
the opposition in Serbia does not exist at all since true opponents of
the regime have already fled the country and the rest of the population
obviously stick up to Milosevic. Many Serbian liberal intellectuals and
journalists protesting against the aggression experienced accusations for
"changing sides" and "supporting the regime". Similar nonsense appeared
in the press and Sulliven's article is a good example. It was easy to persuade
public opinion abroad in collective guilt of the whole nation since Serbs
have already gained the reputation of bad guys in previous wars on the
ex-Yugoslav soil. Therefore, speculations about the scope of atrocities
against Albanians are in many cases argumented with the remembrance of
the Serbian crimes in Bosnian war. So called "peace concerts" in Belgrade
and other cities especially got on the nerves of those "amazed" with Serbian
lack of responsibility. Do they know that employees in the state companies
were forced to attend these concerts during working hours? Do they know
that musicians could not say "no" when invited to perform? Do they know
that the majority of the audience consisted of teenagers coming to relax
and listen to the music of their pop idols? Never mind, singing while the
bombs fall down and people are brutally expelled from their homes might
be immoral or perverse, but to express "regrets" for civilian casualties
is, of course, a matter of good manners. NATO's strategy of collective
punishment and scolding of disobedient Serbian nation certainly corresponds
to the ongoing media satanization.. But, we have to bear in mind that this
policy of collective punishment has been invented by UN when introducing
sanctions to Iraq and Yugoslavia. The impact of the sanctions to the regimes
of these countries was minor, but ordinary people suffered instead.

US inducement of Kurds and Shia groups in Iraq to rebel against Saddam
Hussein immediately after the Gulf War was the perfect example of using
the interior conflicts in the service of US interests. When Saddam's forces
crushed the rebellion in blood, US accused Iraqi president for the crime
against humanity. Maybe NATO played the same card when launching the propaganda
war against Serbs, but, fortunately, there was no response. The bombing
of Radio Television of Serbia building in downtown Belgrade, when innocent
people (mostly technical crew) were killed, reveals the weakness of NATO
efforts to put under the control the public opinion in Serbia. According
to NATO representatives, RTS was to blame for concealing the truth about
the ethnical cleansing on Kosovo and for spreading lies about NATO losses
and other facts of war. Therefore, RTS has been proclaimed a legitimate
target. But NATO leaders do not understand that Serbian homogeneous resistance
to the aggression has not been shaped by RTS propaganda, but by the real
destructive effects of war experienced by each individual and in each part
of the country. From the major Yugoslav exponent of media war, RTS turned
into a victim of real war. Overtaking of B92 seems like a civilized act
of shutting the mouth of dissonant voices in comparison to measures applied
by NATO. From the very outbreak of the war, NATO planes used to drop from
the air leaflets with propaganda messages together with bombs and missiles,
but instead of regaining Serbian consciousness (as they expected) they
produced only counter effects. These poorly designed leaflets, printed
in Cyrillic, with grammatical errors,  were openly shown and mocked
on RTS prime news. One does not have to be a specialist for propaganda
war to realize which truth prevails in such circumstances. It is the truth
of the real experience of air raids, beyond nationalist concepts of victimization
and corresponding media constructs. There are other examples (Madeleine
Albright addressing to Serbs in Serbian, NATO radio and TV programs in
Serbian broadcasted from the air, etc.) showing that NATO underestimates
the intelligence of the whole nation.

Speaking in terms of media coverage, we could say that NATO has no moral
credibility to criticize RTS reports on war, since global media like CNN
or BBC turned overtly into NATO propaganda apparatuses. At least, foreign
audience can get an idea why RTS has been proclaimed a legitimate target.
Both Yugoslav and NATO media prefer emotions over information and it is
known fact that manipulation with emotions can produce immediate and much
stronger reactions from the audience than manipulation with pure information.
Once the images and stories of Kosovar refugees inundated TV screens, there
was no help for already distorted image of Serbs abroad. The one who dominates
war on the battlefield, dominates media war too. Therefore, NATO managed
to produce desirable media effects and thus obtain wide public support
for the Operation Allied Force and its political and military goals. The
"humanitarian cause" is the best excuse for the war Clinton's administration
could offer to American public when American interests were not directly
endangered. Americans are pretty touchy when human rights and humanitarian
issues are on the agenda and those accused for the violation of these sacred
principles must be irreparable villains. American media (especially broadcasted)
as well as the audience have no time nor concentration for nuances, inexplicable
foreign affairs and local conflicts rooted in the remote history unfamiliar
to ordinary American. While local affairs, like Lewinsky case, are usually
discussed day and night, foreign affairs need prompt and clear images and
information on the events. Simplifications are inevitable in such mediascape
and The White House stimulated the creation of black and white image of
the Kosovo conflict in order to justify its policy in the most effective
way.

It is clear that the main objective of NATO intervention has not been
the protection of Kosovar Albanians but the installation of NATO domination
world wide. On several occasions, President Clinton described Kosovo as
an example of policy in which America's values and interests are intertwined.
"If we can convince people to bridge these tensions, we've served our interests
as well as our values" said Clinton recently. In other words, American
interest is to spread American values all over the world and all those
who oppose will bear the suitable consequences. As explained in an article
published in Wall Street Journal three weeks ago, Clinton's administration
instructs "the Russians and the Japanese on their economics, the Chinese
on their politics, the Iraqis on their military, the Serbs on their provinces,
the Latin Americans on drugs and the UN on reformat is a foreign policy
of sermons and sanctimony accompanied by the brandishing of Tomahawks".
This policy resembles the policy of imperialist powers in 19th and early
20th century demonstrating that the means of humiliation of lesser nations
have changed but the very idea of moral superiority still serves as a cover
for the imposition of American interests all over the world. Boris Buden
has recently ("Saving private Havel") given us an example of servile and
over enthusiastic adoption of US democratic values through his analysis
of Vaclav Havel's presidential address given in Washington two years ago.
When saying that these values "should be adopted today by all cultures,
all nations, as a condition of their survival", Czech president made the
crucial point: adoption of the political model imposed by super power gives
guarantees for the survival and prosperity of small nations. But Havel's
pragmatism is not necessary a model of political behaviour to be adopted
by other leaders and nations. Milosevic's policy represents the opposite
model and therefore Yugoslavia has been chosen by NATO leaders for the
punitive expedition aiming to carry out American political will and set
an example for the others. Located in Europe, in the unstable Balkans,
with notorious leader and bloody Kosovo conflict, Yugoslavia turned to
be a perfect proving ground for such demonstration of power. The new world
order has been made transparent in Gulf War, but this time NATO demonstrates
power for itself diminishing at the same time the role of UN as a control
and negotiating mechanism in the international conflicts. NATO is about
to reach the point of absolute control over international affairs, whether
through diplomacy, sanctions, military operations, economic dependency,
etc. Millennium bug is knocking on real doors too and the future development
of this global crisis will show us if there is a solution or not.

"Lotta people won't get no justice tonight" sang The Clash long time
ago. Especially not the Serbs passing through the hardest moment in national
history since Kosovo Battle in 14th century. The circle of history is fulfilled
on the same spot where started. And who is to blame? A difficult and complex
question to give a simple and prompt answer.Whatever the outcome and the
consequences of this war, a day will come when this nation will have to
face its own convictions, decisions and responsibility. It will be much
more difficult to improve the image of European pariah in the eyes of the
world. Injustice done to Serbs cannot be measured by the injustice done
by Serbs. Each injustice should be measured in its own terms.

Dejan Sretenovic
 
 

 
 
 

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