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German and US Involvement in the Balkans:
A Careful Coincidence of National Policies?
BY T. W. ("BILL") CARR,
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
DEFENSE & FOREIGN AFFAIRS PUBLICATIONS,
LONDON.
PRESENTED AT THE
SYMPOSIUM ON THE BALKAN WAR
YUGOSLAVIA: PAST AND PRESENT
CHICAGO, AUGUST 31 - SEPTEMBER 1, 1995
Introduction
On June 12, 1994, US President William Clinton made a
"symbolic" speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in which
he made it clear to the world that a reunited Germany was
the United States' key European partner in bringing about a
new world order. At associated meetings he referred to
Chancellor Helmut Kohl as: "Helmut is my principal partner
in Europe" . . . and "A reunited Germany will be the
leader of a united Europe". President Clinton projected a
vision of a reunited, rebuilt Berlin as the centre of a
united Europe with Germany moving the continent forward in
peace and economic progress.
The facts however deny the realisation of such a Utopean
vision. Many European leaders and analysts have noted that
Germany's actions since the fall of the Berlin Wall have
been largely self-serving and frequently destabilising
within Europe, rather than furthering European unity and
continental stability. The hundreds of thousands of people
killed, maimed, made homeless and turned into refugees in
the former Yugoslavia bear witness to Germany's apparent
agenda in the Balkans, aided both wittingly and unwittingly
since 1991 by two successive US Governments.
The economy of the Balkans has been put back at least 30
years, and enough new hatred generated to last for decades.
Far from being a forward looking foreign policy as projected
by President Clinton, Germany has reverted to some of its
traditional strategic goals, albeit presented in a modern
idiom. If new maps were to be produced of Europe which
depict current zones of German economic dominance and
military influence, they would bear a striking similarity to
maps of the Holy Roman Empire,
page 1
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and, more recently, to those
made a temporary reality by Adolf Hitler's Third Reich in
the 1940s.
However, south of the "German Zone", in a swathe which runs
from Albania in the West through Macedonia, Bulgaria,
Romania, Moldavia, to the Ukraine in the East, is another
zone to which the United States is paying special attention.
It appears that the US Government views this Southern belt
as its area of economic interest. It is not yet certain
whether there is an agreement between Germany and the US to
carve Europe into two main zones, but there is strong
circumstantial evidence from their actions in the Balkans
and in the Southern belt to support the supposition of a
carving up of Europe by two superpowers of the next century.
The Former Yugoslavia
In order to trace German and US involvement in the Balkans
in recent years, it is essential to understand the
circumstances which made this possible, and to briefly
profile the three main protagonists in the former
Yugoslavia, namely, Presidents Milosovic of Serbia, Tudjman
of Croatia and Izetbegovic of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The death of the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia
President Tito in 1980, and then that of his protege and
successor, Vladimir Bakaric, in 1983, produced a void in the
leadership of the Yugoslavia. As a result, throughout the
remainder of the 1980s, Yugoslavia suffered from a declining
economy, increasing rivalry between individuals and states,
and the rebirth of nationalism closely allied to one of
three religions, Christian Roman Catholicism, Christian
Orthodoxy and Islam.
1989 proved to be a pivotal year with a number of factors
facilitating far reaching change, not only in Yugoslavia,
but also throughout Europe, and in the world at large.
In 1989, the demise of the USSR and Eastern European
communism, removed any remaining inhibitions against radical
change in the political make up and structure of the
Yugoslav Federation. Inhibitions disappeared also against
change in the strategic political and military alliances,
frozen throughout the period of the "Cold War". It was
judged by many as an opportunity to create a better world, a
time for US President George Bush's "New World Order"; a
time to reap the peace dividend. Those with a more informed
knowledge of history, however, feared otherwise, perceiving
that the end of the relatively simple-to-understand,
polarized, East-West, communism VERSUS capitalism
confrontation, would probably mean a return to the complex,
devious, and frequently covert, geopolitics
page 2
practiced by the major powers in the 19th Century and the
first half of 20th Century.
The last decade of the 20th Century has thus become a period
in which the world's great powers can implement new policies
formulated to advance national interests. In many current
situations, implementation can be achieved more easily than
in the past, and given a cloak of international
respectability, by manipulating the United Nations Security
Council, and using the Trans-Atlantic/European organisations
which had been developed to counter the military and
economic strength of communism from 1945 to 1990.
Milosovic, Izetbegovic & Tudjman: The Bid For Power
Three leaders emerged within the collapsing Federal
Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. Each used the emotive
appeal of patriotism (nationalism), history and religious
heritage in their bid for political control of one of three
"nation states", Orthodox Christian Serbia, Roman Catholic
Christian Croatia and Islamic Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Slobodan Milosovic
On June 28, 1989, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic marked
the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo against the
"Ottoman Islamist Empire" at Gazimestan by addressing more
than one-million Serbs, recounting the heroism of the
Serbian nation and their Christian Orthodox faith in
resisting the spread of Islam into Europe. He reassured his
audience, that the Autonomous Province of Kosovo would
remain an integral part of Serbia and Yugoslavia, despite
the then current and often violent, problem of separatism
demanded by the Muslim Albanian majority living in Kosovo.
In the Serbian presidential election on November 12, l989,
Mr Milosovic won 65.3 percent of the vote, his nearest
rival, Mr Vuk Draskovic, polled only 16.4 of the votes cast.
Alija Izetbegovic
At the same time, Alija Izetbegovic, who had been released
early from jail in 1988 (serving only six years of a 14 year
sentence for pro-Islamic, anti-state activities), visited
Islamic fundamentalist states in the Middle East, returning
to Bosnia-Herzegovina to found the SDA (Muslim Party of
Democratic Action). His 1970 manifesto, "Islamic
Declaration", advocating the spread of radical pan-Islamism
-- politicised Islam -- through-
page 3
out the world, by force if necessary, was reissued in
Sarajevo at this time. His ISLAMIC DECLARATION is imbued
with intolerance towards Western religion, culture and
economic systems. This is also the theme projected in his
book, Islam between East and West, first published in the US
in 1984, and in Serb-Croat in 1988, shortly after he was
released from prison in the former Yugoslavia. In his
writings he states that Islam cannot co-exist with other
religions in the same nation other than as a short-term
expediency measure. In the longer term, as and when Muslims
become strong enough in any country, then they must seize
power and form a truly Islamic state.
In the multi-party elections held in Bosnia-Herzegovina on
November 18, 1990, the population voted almost exclusively
along communal lines. The Muslim Democratic Action Party
secured 86 seats, the Serbian Democratic Party 72, and the
Croatian Democratic Union (ie: union with Croatia) Party 44
seats. As the leader of the largest political party, Mr.
Izetbegovic, became the first President of Bosnia-
Herzegovina, albeit for just one year, for under the new
constitution of B-H, the presidency was to revolve each year
between the three parties, each of which represented one
ethnic community.
Under constitutional law, in January 1992, Mr. Izetbegovic
should have handed over the Presidency to Mr Radovan
Karadzic, the Serbian Democratic Party leader. He failed to
honour the constitution and being true to his writings, he
seized power, acting undemocratically and illegally.
Therefore, at no time since January 1992 should Mr
Izetbegovic have been acknowledged by the intentional
community as the legal President of B-H.
Franjo Tudjman
Towards the end of World War II, while still a young man,
Franjo Tudjman took the pragmatic option and joined the
communist Partisans. He had probably realised that Germany
could not win the war and that Tito and his Partisans would
gain control of Yugoslavia, with the full support of both
the Soviets and the British Prime Minister Sir Winston
Churchill.
Some time after the end of World War II, Tudjman joined the
communist Yugoslav National Army as a regular officer and
rose to the rank of Major-General during the early part of
President Tito's period of office.
During the late 1960s and in 1970, ultra right wing fascism
began to re-surface in Croatia, showing the same World War
II fascist face of nationalism and the requirement that the
nation state must be racially pure.
page 4
This was the first attempt anywhere in Europe to resurrect
German National Socialism following the fall of the Third
Reich in 1944. Hitler created Croatia when his forces over-
ran Yugoslavia in 1941, installing as Fuhrer, Ante Pavelic,
leader of the fascist Croatian Ustase movement Pavelic had
spent the previous 10 years in exile in Italy as head of a
Croatian terrorist group, shielded by the Vatican and the
Italian Fascist Party.
Mr Tudjman was deeply involved in the attempted revival of
fascism, allowing his national socialism ethos to come to
the fore with the publication of his treatise, THE
WASTELANDS. In it he attempted to re-write major sections of
the history of World War II, downplaying the Holocaust, and
with it, the more than one-million Jews, Serbs and Gypsies
murdered by the Croatian ultra-nationalist Ustase, which
included priests of the Holy Roman Church, at the Croatian
Ustase concentration camp of Jasenovac and at other
locations within Yugoslavia.
For his nationalistic, anti-state activities at this time,
Mr Tudjman went to jail for three years. After being
released from jail, Mr Tudjman was politically low key for a
few years, but re-emerged on the scene when President Tito
died in 1980, gradually building a power base among the
Croatian right wing and creating the HDZ Party.
In the multi-party elections held in Croatia in May 1990, Mr
Tudjman's HDZ Party won control of the Sabor (Croatian
Parliament) and Mr Tudjman became President of Croatia when
it was still part of the Yugoslav Federation.
The Rebirth Of German Expansionist Aims
The demise of the USSR and communism in Eastern Europe in
1989, removed a 40 year old threat which had curtailed
successive West German governments from pursuing policies
independent of other West European countries, the US and
Canada. The collapse of communism in the East basically
spelled the end of the post-World War II era and the
constraints imposed on the defeated Germany key the victors
of that war.
In 1989, West German Chancellor Kohl suddenly had the
opportunity to re-unite the two parts of Germany, and to
formulate policies which would make Germany the dominant
power in Europe, with the economic and financial
capabilities to control the European Union from within. At
the same time, a resurgent, united Germany would also have
the financial and economic strength to exercise a large
measure of control over the former East European satellite
states of the USSR.
Page 5
German Foreign Policy After Reunification
The German Government anticipated reunification, and, with
the benefit of hindsight, it is possible now to discern that
a new far-reaching strategic policy was being formulated as
early as 1987. In the September of that year, the then
communist leader of the German Democratic Republic (GDR),
General Secretary Erich Honecker, crossed over into the
Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), visiting the Federal
Government and making a symbolic trip to his birthplace in
the Saar. This was the first time that an East German
communist leader had ever held talks with his counterpart in
West Germany. There is ample circumstantial evidence to
support the conclusion that the shaping of a united Germany
was discussed at that meeting: Honecker never stood trial
for his crimes against the German people; after four months
sanctuary in Russia he returned to Germany but was allowed
to move to Chile on "health grounds". It is apparent that
from that point onwards the German Government began to be
more assertive in foreign affairs, particularly so in its
dealings in Europe, within the European Community (EC), in
the Middle East and at the United Nations.
German reunification commenced on July 1, 1990, when the two
economies and currencies merged. West Germany created a
US$71-billion unity fund to facilitate the reunification.
However, other member nations of the EC also have been made
to pay for German reunification. Without consulting other EC
governments, Chancellor Kohl equated the deutschmark of his
economically strong West Germany with that of the
economically weak former communist East Germany. High
interest rates were implemented by the Bundesbank in order
to maintain the strength of the combined East/West
deutschmark at the international level of the West German
mark. This however pushed other EC countries faster into a
recession which was clearly affecting them to varying
degrees at that time. Obliged to maintain their currencies
within the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) bandwidths,
Germany's European partners were forced to follow the
Bundesbank in maintaining (or in some cases even increasing)
high interest rates. This was at the time when they
desperately needed to lower interest rates as a method of
stimulating economic growth and reversing rising
unemployment.
It has been estimated that in 1994, the former East Germany
received at least 176-billion deutschmarks in investment and
income/pension support of the 16-million population. This
has been paid for from higher taxation levied on the
citizens of what was West Germany, and by higher levels of
unemployment in other EC member states. There can be little
doubt that the German Government reunification policy was
self-serving, and to the detriment of most EC member states.
page 6
German Foreign Policy towards the UK
The UK is somewhat of a special case as far as Germany is
concerned, both historically, when, allied with the Serbs,
she was twice instrumental in defeating German expansionism,
and currently, when the UK impedes Germany's domination of
the EC. However, from the end of World War II until the
demise of communism, Germany needed the UK as an ally to
help defend its Eastern border. Geopolitical circumstances
changed in 1989, the communist threat evaporated, and once
again, German Government actions indicate that the UK is
seen as an impediment to Germany's strategic ambitions.
Germany has taken steps to undermine the UK's financial
standing, and its credibility within the EU, NATO and the
North Atlantic Alliance.
When the pound sterling came under pressure from
speculators, no support was forthcoming from the German
Finance Ministry and the Bundesbank. Indeed they increased
the degree of speculation, saying the pound was overvalued.
Despite spending millions of pounds trying to maintain the
international value of sterling, the British Government was
forced to withdraw the pound from the European Exchange Rate
Mechanism (ERM). UK Prime Minister John Major was made to
appear politically weak and not in control of the British
economy. On the other hand, the German financial
institutions reinforced their already formidable
international reputation, and the deutschmark was perceived
as the most powerful currency within the EU and indeed in
Europe.
In similar circumstances, Chancellor Kohl gave massive
financial support to the French Government when the French
franc came under speculative pressure. A partial explanation
of the difference in treatment meted out to the two
countries by Germany is the fact that the French Government
had the French Ministry of Finance. In so doing, the French
Government moved closer to Germany, but at the same time, it
effectively made the Bank of France subordinate to the
Bundesbank. A similar dictate to John Major was promptly
turned down as the British Prime Minister knew only too well
that such a move would weaken his Government's control of
the British economy to the benefit of Germany. However,
because of Germany's growing strength within the European
Community, the British Prime Minister was unable to prevent
the new European Central Bank being established in
Frankfurt, rather than in the City of London, the
traditional international financial centre for Europe.
At the same time Germany persuaded France to join with it to
form the Eurocorps, a joint Franco-German military formation
destined to be a 40,000 strong force not under the control
of NATO. Only German and French would be used by the new
formation, unlike NATO which uses
page 7
English as its prime language. As mentioned previously, when
Europe went into economic recession, Germany refused to
lower its interest rate as a method of stimulating the EU's
economies, in effect making EU states fund the re-
unification of Germany. Through these and many other
actions, Chancellor Kohl attempted to weaken the UK
Government's economic position and its influence in all the
European institutions. Germany is now actively seeking a
seat at the United Nations Security Council, even if this
turns out to be at the expense of the UK's seat.
It should be remembered, that by breaking up the former
Yugoslavia, Germany has created four new member states at
the United Nations in New York, all four of these new states
will vote in favour of Germany being given a seat on the UN
Security Council. For its part, Germany is playing an active
role to gain EU membership for Croatia and Slovenia. In
Slovenia's first multi-party government following secession
from Yugoslavia, no less than six Ministers were of German
descent.
Germany and Croatia: Resurrection of the "Pure" Croatian
Nation State
Reliable intelligence sources claimed in 1990, that in 1988,
Mr Tudjman paid a secret visit to the Federal Republic of
Germany (FRG) and met with Chancellor Kohl and other senior
Government Ministers. It was said that the aim of the visit
was to formulate a joint policy to break-up Yugoslavia,
leading to the recreation of a new independent State of
Croatia with international borders in the form originally
set up by the German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, in 1941. At a
secret meeting in Bonn, the German Government pledged its
political, financial, and covert military support for
Croatia's secession from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The intelligence source claimed such an action fitted neatly
into Germany's strategic objectives in respect of the
Balkans, which included bringing Roman Catholic Croatia and
Slovenia within the German economic zone, gaining direct
access to the Adriatic and Mediterranean, and securing a
favoured nation status with the oil and gas producing Arab
states. The latter to be enhanced by recognising Bosnia-
Herzegovina as a predominantly Muslim nation state, an
entree to modern Europe for Islam along a traditional path
from Turkey via Albania and the Serbian areas of Kosovo and
the Sandzak occupied by Muslim majorities.
In the period leading up to Croatian secession there were
signs that indicated the re-emergence of the historical axis
previously seen in the days of the Holy Roman Empire, the
Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Third Reich. There is no
"conspiracy theory" in this: merely the reappearance of a
geopolitical pattern.
page 8
Evidence of the axis in action occurred on October 4, 1990,
when, even though still a part of Yugoslavia, Croatia was
covertly provided with a US$2-billion interest-free loan,
repayable in full after 10 years and a day. The loan was
provided by the ORDRA SOUVERAIN ET MILITAIRA DE SAINT-JEAN
DE JERUSALEM, CHEVALIERS-HOSPITALIERS DE MALTE. This ancient
Order of Roman Catholic Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem
was based in Malta during the Christian Crusades against the
Islamic forces in Jerusalem. Today, the headquarters
building of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem is
located at 61 Via Nizza in Rome from where these modem
Catholic Knights wield the influential power of high
finance. There is a known strong link between the
headquarters in Rome and Germany, with reports indicating
the organisation is even directed by German nationals.
Ostensibly the loan was to fund priority civil engineering
projects with a statement of condition that the loan should
not be used to fund military projects. However, well-placed
sources said the loan freed-up other finances earmarked for
civil projects, thus enabling the money to be redirected to
equip armament factories and to purchase weapons. The same
source said that despite the "no funding of military
projects" condition, a significant percentage of the US$2-
billion loan was misused on armaments. Signatories to the
contract on behalf of the Croats were Vice President Dr Mate
Babic and Madame Maksa Zelen Mirjana, Counselor at the
Ministry of Finance authorised to act on behalf of the
Minister of Finance.
This US$2-billion loan has never appeared in any Croatian
Government financial statement. When Waterman Associates, on
behalf of the Croatian Embassy in Washington DC, sent out a
press release in 1994 purporting to show a very low amount
of foreign debt/loans, I challenged their figures,
mentioning the US$2-billion loan from the Knights of Saint
John of Jerusalem. The embassy said they had no knowledge of
the loan, so I offered to send them a complete copy of the
"Object du Financement". My offer was declined as they said
such a document did not exist.
It should be remembered, that this loan was made to Croatia
prior to secession. A time when Croatia was still part of
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and obliged under the
Federal Constitution to disclose any such transaction.
The reunification of the two Germanies and modernisation of
the East German armed forces, made available a substantial
pool of weapons and military instructors for the arming and
training of a Croatian militia. During late 1989, and
throughout 1990, arms flowed from Germany to Croatia to
equip militia units. After his HDZ party (Croatian
Democratic Union) won control of the Sabor in the May 30,
1990, multi-party elections, the newly elected President
Tudjman formed a National Guard Corps (ZNG). In effect, the
ZNG was not a "national" force in the accepted
page 9
meaning' of the word, rather it was the ultra-nationalist,
neo-USTASE military wing of Tudjman's HDZ political party,
in the same way that the "Brownshirts" of the 1930s acted as
the vanguard enforcement wing of Hitler's National Socialist
Party.
It has been asked why did the Yugoslav Government in
Belgrade not prevent the formation of the ZNG. The answer is
quite simple. At the time, all the senior positions in the
federal internal security organisations, and many senior
posts in the General Staff of the JNA, were held by Croats.
For instance, Croatia's first Minister of Defence, Martin
Spegelj, was a senior general in the Yugoslav Armed Forces
at the time of secession.
With the full support of Germany, and against the wishes of
other members of the EC, the HDZ ruling party declared
Croatian sovereignty in the Sabor on December 22, 1990,
despite strong objections raised by the opposition parties.
Shortly after the declaration, President Tudjman introduced
a new Croatian constitution which defined Croatia as the
national state of the Croatian people and others, pointedly
relegating the Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and Muslims to a second
class status. This was an exact repeat of what had happened
in 1941 when nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia and set up
Croatia as the national state of the Croatian people and
others. After the HDZ dominated Government passed the new
constitution, discrimination against the Serbs began
immediately. Serbs lost government jobs in the civil
service, police, local authorities etc. ... they were
evicted from their homes, many lost the ownership of their
own businesses, and Serb newspapers were closed down etc.
... A special property tax applicable only to Serbs was
introduced, and Croatian militia openly looted and closed
down Serb shops selling expensive products such as jewelry.
These measures clearly indicated to the Serbs living within
the administrative borders of Croatia that they must leave
the land where they had lived for three centuries, or, face
the consequences of staying.
One of the most sinister changes was that every identified
Serb in Croatia was issued with a new identity card which
incorporated the figure 3 as the eighth figure in the
identity number. The figure 3 thus became the Croatian
equivalent for Serbs as nazi Germany's Star of David was for
all Jews residing in countries dominated by Germany. When
the time came for ethnic cleansing to start, the figure 3
would ensure no Serb would escape.
The Revived Political Role of the Croatian Bishops
On February 1, 1991, the Croatian Roman Catholic bishops
sent an open letter to the bishops of the world, and then to
the entire Catholic church
page 10
worldwide, In the letter, the Croatian bishops said that
Belgrade, supported by the Orthodox Church, was advocating
that socialism of the communist type be preserved in
Yugoslavia. The letter also stated that the Serb-dominated
government and army in Belgrade were centralist, and
were firmly opposing the western cultural and democratic
traditions to be found in the republics with a pronounced
West European tradition ie: Croatia and Slovenia.This theme,
that the Serbs were undemocratic communists and Belgrade was
the last bastion of communism in Europe, while the Croats
were anti-Communist democrats aligned with western values,
culture and free-market economic structures, became the
golden bullet fired constantly by the Croatian propaganda
machine. It struck home all over the Western world,
particularly in the United States, and it quickly became a
major driving force behind US policy in Yugoslavia. It also
struck home with much of the world's media, thereby setting
the scene for the anti-Serb reporting that persist to this
day.
Pope John Paul II received President Tudjman on May 25,
1991, just as Pope Pius XII received Ante Pavelic, the
Ustase leader of the Independent State of Croatia on May 18,
1941.
On May 28, 1991, in the Zagreb football stadium, President
Tudjman held a military rally reminiscent of Hitler's pre-
World War 11 rallies in Germany. The National Guard Corps,
now a large and fully equipped military force paraded before
the political and religious leadership of the new Croatia.
The parading troops wore the same insignia as the fascist
USTASE in 1941 and, as in 1941, received the public blessing
of the Roman Catholic Church before going out into the towns
and countryside to commence the ethnic cleansing of Serbs.
An official UN report by UN Secretary General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali stated that more than 250,000 Serbs were
driven out of Croatia and thousands killed during 1991 and
1992 by Croatian ethnic cleansing operations.
Somehow the Western media failed to pay much attention to
the actions against the Serbs; only when the Yugoslav Army
attacked Croatian territory in an attempt to free 5,000
Serbs imprisoned and being killed at Vukovar did the TV
cameras appear on the scene to tell the world of barbaric
Serbian aggression launched against freedom-loving
democratic Croatia. The root causes of the problem were
ignored, history was ignored, objectivity was left behind in
the modern vision-bite of instant TV reporting. The Balkans
was too complex for a mass audience to comprehend, so keep
it simple, paint it black and white and produce exciting,
emotive newscasts. The Balkans replaced the Gulf War in the
battle for TV ratings. The Serbs were immediately cast
simultaneously as communists and evil bearded, drunken
cetniks. Anyone with even a vague knowledge of the Balkans
would know this was a contradiction, the
page 11
Serbian Nationalists fighting the Germans in World War II -
often miscalled cetniks - were Royalists not communists.
Germany Forced The European Community To Recognise
Croatia At Maastricht
On June 25, 1991, both the Slovenian and Croatian
parliaments declared independence, seceding from the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia. Fighting between Croatian and
Slovenian militia units with the confused, poorly-led JNA
erupted in many places with the result that on June 29, the
SC dispatched the so-called Troika peace mission to
Yugoslavia. On July 7, under the auspices of the SC, the
Brioni Declaration was adopted: the decisions of Slovenia
and Croatia to secede were suspended for three months in an
attempt to secure peace and to maintain the unity of
Yugoslavia, albeit probably in a revised federal structure.
>From May 1991 onwards, the Western media was full of biased,
anti-Serb reporting, frequently claiming that the communist
Yugoslav National Army from Serbia was conducting naked
aggression against the innocent, democratic, pro-western
people of Croatia and Slovenia. Germany played the major
role in projecting and reinforcing this view of events. At
05.00 hrs on July 9, 1991, the then German Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Hans Dietrich Genscher, telephoned the US
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs James Baker,
demanding resolute action by the UN Security Council and the
Western Alliance against the Serbian terror in Croatia.
During his early morning telephone call, Herr Genscher
pushed hard for economic sanctions to be placed on Serbia
and Montenegro, and that Croatia and Slovenia be recognised
as independent states.
Here again, it can be seen that Germany was striving to
bring about the break-up of Yugoslavia in pursuit of its own
strategic objectives, and at the same time positioning
itself alongside the United States. In this Germany was
aided by Austria. For instance, the Grand Duke Otto von
Hapsburg, son of the last Emperor of Austro-Hungary, and now
a German Member of the European Parliament, spoke strongly
in favour of the Croats. In the French newspaper Le Figaro
on August 15, 1991, he is reported as saying: "Croats, being
the civilised part of Europe, have nothing in common with
Serbian primitivism the Balkans. Croatia's future lies in a
European Confederation to which the former Austro-Hungary
could serve as the model to be followed." On the other hand,
in contrast to the German and Austrian strategy, at this
stage, the SC was still trying to bring about a peaceful
resolution of the situation and to maintain the unity of
Yugoslavia.
page 12
However, the fighting continued, In an attempt to slow down
the fighting, the UN voted on September 25 to impose an arms
embargo on all factions in Yugoslavia: Germany ignored the
embargo and continued to covertly supply Croatia with arms
and ammunition. Fighting intensified, particularly in
Croatia. During October 1991, more than 25,000 Serbs were
ethnically cleansed from Western Slavonija. At the same
time, 24 Serbian villages were razed to the ground in the
area around Slavonska Pozega and more than 10,000 Serbs were
driven across the border into Bosnia by Croatian ethnic
cleansing operations.
In December 1991, EC heads of state and senior ministers
gathered for a crucial meeting at Maastricht. Their task was
to agree a treaty that would be a blueprint for the future
development of the European Community, including across-the-
board integration of economic and monetary affairs, a
timetable for achieving political cohesion, a far-reaching
social policy and moves towards a common policy on foreign
affairs and security. Some member states, particularly the
UK, knew they would be unable to gain acceptance from their
own parliaments for the complete package of proposed
measures and therefore pressed for an opt-out clause on some
of the measures. Western European Union document 1342 Part
two, dated November 6, 1992, indicates, that at the
Maastricht meeting, the unity of the EC was maintained at
the expense of the unity of Yugoslavia. In the course of
heated discussions on European security and a common policy
on foreign affairs, Germany injected the problems in
Yugoslavia.
>From a position where the EC members were 11 to one in
favour of maintaining the unity of Yugoslavia, Germany
succeeded at 04.00 hrs in forcing approval for the
recognition of Croatia and Slovenia as independent states.
The Maastricht Treaty was signed, complete with all its opt-
out clauses, and it was claimed in a press statement issued
at the end of the conference that the EC was united on the
way forward on all major policy matters.
The WEU document reads:
"The Maastricht process therefore influenced the Twelve's
reactions to the Yugoslav crisis, while that crises
influenced the process of the European Union...it should be
underlined that any undertaking that did not have the
consent of all member states of the Community would have
significantly weakened Europe just when it was negotiating
the Maastricht Treaty and then proceeding to ratify it".
In effect, Yugoslav unity was sacrificed to maintain EC
unity. By its actions, Germany had proved it had become the
dominant power in the European Community and was prepared to
use its economic strength to achieve strategic goals in the
post cold war era. A few days after the
page 13
conclusion of the Maastricht meeting, on December 23, 1991,
Germany recognised Roman Catholic Croatia and Slovenia as
independent states effective from January 15, 1992. Germany
also gave a promise to gain for them membership of the
United Nations; this was effected just five months later on
May 22, 1992.
German Actions Destablise Yugoslavia And The US Steps In
To Assist
A major destabilising effect of Germany's recognition of
Croatia came the day after on December 24, 1991 - The Serb
areas within the administrative boundaries of Croatia
exercised their right to self-determination, just as the
Croats had done in seceding from Yugoslavia. They came
together in a single republic independent of Croatia and
Serbia, but the EC refused to acknowledge their right of
self-determination, stating that the territories were part
of Croatia. This was a fundamental error of judgment that
led to four years of conflict, the death of thousands of
innocent Serb civilians and the Croatian ethnic cleansing of
West Slavonia and the Krajina in May and August 1995.
On January 13,1992, in his capacity as Head of the Vatican
State, the Pope became the first Head of State (alongside
Chancellor Kohl of Germany) to recognise the new Croatian
nation state. He was even ahead of EC member countries, they
collectively recognised Croatia on January 13, 1992. The
outcome of recognising Croatia as an independent state
within whose international borders the international
community forced thousands of Serbs to live as second class
citizens was an intensification of the fighting.
At a meeting in Lisbon in February 1992, the EC proposed a
Swiss-style, canton-based solution for the running of Bosnia-
Herzegovina which had declared it would secede from the
Yugoslav Federation, despite the objections of the Serbs who
constituted 34 percent of the population. Ignoring the EC
proposal, The Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croatian Deputies
ordered a referendum on February 29, 1992, which was
boycotted by the Serbs. The result therefore was 99 percent
in favor of seceding from the Yugoslav Federation. Germany
and the US encouraged President Izetbegovic to declare
independence with promises of recognition and financial aid.
Heavy fighting broke out, but towards the end of March 1992,
it appeared that a breakthrough had been achieved when,
despite reservations on some of the detail, all three sides
apparently verbally accepted the EC canton-style solution
proposed some weeks earlier in February. Yet only two days
later, the Bosnian Muslims rejected the plan following an
assurance from the US and Germany That Bosnia-Herzegovina
would be recognised, given UN membership, and, that they
page 14
could get a better deal than was currently on offer from the
EC/UN Peace Envoys.
Germany forced through EC recognition of B-H on April 6,
1992, the very anniversary of Germany's invasion of
Yugoslavia in 1941. This was done against all the advice
arid warnings of the conflict that would occur in B-H from
knowledgeable statesman, including Lord Carrington who
resigned his post as EC Peace Negotiator. Just a few hours
after Germany's recognition of B-H, the US took the same
step on April 7. The next day, on April 8, the Muslim-Croat
dominated Bosnian Government announced the immediate
formation of a single national militia (army) under the
control of the Minister of the Interior, a radical Muslim.
In response, the Bosnian Serb Deputies declared an
Independent Serbian Republic (Republic of Srpska) on April
7/8, 1992, declaring the 34 percent Serb population had as
much right to self-determination as the Bosnian Muslims and
Croats, particularly since the Serbs in Bosnia held legal
title to at least 65 percent of the land.
Four days after the formation of the Bosnian Muslim Army,
President Izetbegovic ordered his troops to attack all the
barracks of the Yugoslav Army in Bosnia. Two weeks later,
the Yugoslav Government declared it would respect the
territorial integrity of B-H and that the JNA would commence
to withdraw to Serbia on May 19, all the JNA had withdrawn
by June 6, 1992. Despite the JNA clearly demonstrating it
was withdrawing, on May 29, the UN, led by the US and
Germany branded Yugoslavia the aggressor in B-H and in the
disputed territory on the Croatian-Serb border. No account
was taken by the US and Germany of the fact that the JNA had
withdrawn from its barracks in Slovenia and Macedonia, and
was half way through a withdrawal from B-H.. Yugoslavia was
still branded the aggressor. Later on the same day, May 30,
1992, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 757,
imposing economic sanctions on Yugoslavia (Serbia and
Montenegro). On July 2, the Bosnian Croats who accounted for
17 percent of the population of B-H, declared a separate
state within B-H, calling it Croatia Herzeg-Bosnia. This
territory rapidly became a part of greater Croatia, adopting
the same flag, currency, car number plates etc. ... as used
in Croatia and Croatian Government troops were deployed in
this part of B-H. No action has ever been taken against
Croatia by the UN in respect of these flagrant acts of
aggression, a sharp contrast to Yugoslavia which suffers UN
sanctions despite having no troops deployed in B-H.
The US and Germany again took the lead against Serbia by
taking action at the UN with the passing of UN Resolution
816 on October 9, 1992, declaring the air space above B-H to
be a no-fly zone. The US said the objective was to prevent
munitions and war supplies from reaching all three sides,
and to prevent air strikes being employed by one side
against
page 15
another.. However, because the Bosnian Serbs had by far the
largest air force, the real effect impinged on one side
only. In addition, the no-fly zone was used by the US to
allow the Bosnian Muslim and Croat forces to use helicopters
and fixed wing aircraft without them being attacked by
Bosnian fighter aircraft. Between October 1992 and today, UN
observers have reported thousands of violations of the no-
fly zone, the vast majority by Bosnian Muslim and Croatian
aircraft, and yet, only Bosnian Serb aircraft, airfields,
radars and communication centres have been targeted by NATO
aircraft. It should not be forgotten that within the NATO
structure in the region, most of the senior officers in
control of air and naval operations are US personnel, and
the aircraft used in the air strikes have been predominantly
US.
US Attempted Three Times To Control Belgrade
As noted earlier, the perception in the US is that Belgrade
is the last bastion of communism in Europe, and that
President Milosevic of Serbia is the last communist leader
holding power in Europe. As a result of these perceptions,
constantly reinforced by Germany, the US has taken a number
of actions to gain control of Yugoslavia and in so doing to
unseat President Milosevic.
In July 1992, with the blessing and backing of the US State
Department, and an invitation from the Yugoslav leadership,
a naturalised US citizen, Milan Panic, returned to Belgrade.
He had left Serbia in the early 1950s as a poor young man
and carved out a multi-million dollar pharmaceutical
business empire in California. Milan Panic was therefore the
embodiment of the American Dream, and a potent symbol for
capitalism over communism. Accompanied by a host of US
advisers, his mission appeared to be that of peacemaker,
with the Yugoslav leadership hoping that his presence in
their capital would result in better relations with the US
and the lifting of UN sanctions. On July 14, 1992, while
still a US citizen, Mr Panic was appointed as the first
Prime Minister of the new Yugoslavia.
Under US law, citizens of the US are not permitted to hold
office in, or participate in, any foreign government; in the
past, people even voting in a foreign election have lost
their US citizenship. Yet Milan Panic was allowed by the US
State Department to become the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia,
a country on which the US had been the prime mover in
imposing UN sanctions. It can only be assumed, as subsequent
events seem to confirm, that the State Department hoped Mr
Panic would displace "communist" leader Mr Milosevic. After
which, Mr Panic would be in a strong position to terminate
the Balkans' conflict on US and German terms, and bring
Yugoslavia under US and German economic influence.
page 16
On August 11, 1992, Mr Panic made his first tentative move
to sideline President Milosevic. Together with the then
recently elected Yugoslav President, Mr Dobrica Cosic, Prime
Minister Panic met with Lord Owen and Cyrus Vance in Geneva.
Following the meeting, a joint statement was issued on
future Yugoslav relations with Croatia and B-H. It varied
somewhat with previous positions adopted by President
Milosevic.
On September 1, Prime Minister Panic startled the Yugoslav
population by stating during a Belgrade TV interview: "The
world sees Mr Milosevic as a man who does not keep his
word." President Milosevic brought a vote of no confidence
against Panic. On September 10, 1992, the Yugoslav Foreign
Minister resigned his post during peace talks in Geneva,
saying Mr Panic was continuing to work against the interests
of the Serbian people. Another vote of no confidence was
brought against Mr Panic in November, and though it failed
by one vote in the upper chamber, it effectively crippled Mr
Panic's administration.
The Yugoslav Federal Prime Minister then made his third
move, announcing he would run against Mr Milosevic for the
Presidency of Serbia. At the election on December 20, Mr
Milosevic polled 56.21 percent of votes, and Mr Panic 33.95
(the remainder went to right wing nationalist candidates).
Many independent observers of the election said the US
Government's transparent tactics of threatening the Serbs
with military intervention if Mr Panic was not elected,
backfired by pushing a large proportion of the population
into voting for Mr Milosevic. His mission a failure, Mr
Panic returned to the US to pursue his business interests.
The second occasion took place when US Secretary of State
Warren Christopher visited Belgrade as part of his round
Europe diplomatic effort, made soon after President Clinton
had taken over from President George Bush. Though his tone
was diplomatic, nevertheless he went to Belgrade more to
preach and harangue, rather than to listen to another point
of view and work more objectively. Interviewed by the US CBS
Television Network on March 28, 1993, Secretary of State
Warren Christopher said: "If the Bosnian Serbs do not sign,
we will take measures to tighten sanctions against Serbia
and Montenegro, increase humanitarian aid to Bosnia, take
further steps for establishing an international war crimes
tribunal and, hopefully, have a resolution enforcing the no-
fly zone in Bosnia next week. The US is also considering a
lifting of the embargo on delivering arms to Bosnian
Muslims."
The third time pressure was applied by the US took place in
April 1993. In an attempt to show EC member states that
strong talking and threats was the way to deal with Serbs,
President Clinton sent to Belgrade a US Special Peace Envoy,
Mr Reginald Bartholomew, accompanied by State
page 17
Department officials and senior US Armed Forces officers.
Their publicly-stated mission was to hold discussions on how
to progress the peace process with the Yugoslav Government.
On arrival, they tried to drive a wedge between the military
and political leadership by insisting on separate meetings.
At a series of meetings, in a most confrontational manner,
the Americans demanded the Bosnian Serbs be made to sign the
Vance-Owen Plan immediately.
At the meeting with the then JNA Chief of General Staff,
General Panic, and his senior officers, the Americans made
it very clear they had not come to negotiate. When the JNA
officers tried to put forward the Serbian viewpoint they
were told to shut up and listen. The Americans said they
were not interested in history and had come to deliver an
ultimatum. The meeting was filled with threats of massive US
military action against Serbs throughout Yugoslavia unless
the Yugoslav Government agreed immediately to US and UN
terms for the peace settlement in Bosnia and Croatia.
A senior US officer was introduced as having a wide
experience of the Vietnam war, and that his armoured units
in the Gulf war had destroyed seven Iraqi armoured
divisions. The threat was made to send him to the Balkans to
do a similar destruction job on the JNA. General Panic
explained there were no JNA forces in Bosnia but there were
40,000 Croatian Government troops deployed in Bosnia, so he
trusted the Americans would be even-handed and attack and
destroy the Croatian invasion force in Bosnia. Despite
having been told not to argue by General Panic, the JNA
Chief of Military Intelligence could not resist saying that
the US officer had lost in Vietnam, and he would find the
mountains of Bosnia and Serbia defended by Serbian fighting
men much tougher to attack than a bunch of Muslims in a flat
desert. That evening, the US Embassy in Belgrade very
pointedly held a cocktail reception just for the political
parties and newspaper editors opposed to Mr Milosevic. It
perhaps needs no saying that the US Delegation left Belgrade
without any concessions from the Yugoslav side.
Throughout the remainder of 1993 and into 1994, while the EC
and UN Special Envoys tried to achieve a peaceful resolution
in the former Yugoslavia, Germany continued to supply arms
to Croatia and the Bosnian Muslims. Other than Germany, EC
member states resisted efforts to lift the arms embargo on
only one side in the Bosnian civil war. President Clinton
therefore abandoned his efforts to lift the arms embargo on
the Bosnian Muslims. It is clear now that the US Government
changed tactics at this point.
page 18
Us Government Co-ordinates Croat And Muslim Actions
Against the Serbs
Peace negotiations reconvened in Geneva during the second
week of February 1994 in an atmosphere charged with emotion
and anti-Serb feeling as a result of the Markale market
explosion, claimed erroneously to be a Serb mortar shell.
Prior to this round of talks in Geneva, President Clinton
and his administration had made it clear they had little
faith in the EC/UN peace negotiating process. Quite
remarkably, on February 11, 1994, in front of TV cameras in
Geneva, US Special Envoy to the Peace Talks, Charles Redman,
stood side by side with a very happy looking Bosnian Prime
Minister, Haris Silajdzic, and declared that: "The United
States now intends to help the Bosnian Muslims get what they
are demanding. We want to help the Bosnian Government to
come to a substantive settlement. We want to reinvigorate
the negotiations and produce the results the Bosnians have
been looking for". In plain English, Mr Redman was stating
the US Government is going to take sides in a civil war and
is going to intervene in the internal affairs of another
country, taking the side of the Muslims against the Orthodox
Christians.
>From this point on it is possible to discern a much greater
overt and covert US involvement in B-H, in a pattern
reminiscent of the early days of the Vietnam war. In
addition to increasing the flow of arms to the Croats and
Muslims, the US went further and devised a policy to bring
the Croats and Bosnian Muslims together in a co-ordinated
strategy to defeat the Bosnian Serbs and the Krajina Serbs.
In March 1994, talks were held in Washington DC between the
Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat leadership, accompanied by
President Tudjman of Croatia. The two sides agreed a
ceasefire, the forging of a Croat-Muslim alliance, and the
formation of a federal Bosnia, with the Bosnian Croatian
Republic confederated with Croatia itself.
In May 1994, I wrote in a Defense & Foreign Affairs
publication, that: "President Tudjman admitted that in
return for agreeing to this proposal, the US had promised
that the Serbs in the Krajina, and in other Croatian
territories, would be forced to concede the territories are
part of Croatia. Pressure would be exerted by the US, using
its influence in NATO and the UN Security Council, and its
economic leverage with Russia, to force a settlement on the
Krajina Serb Republic. Sanctions would remain on Yugoslavia
as a means of pressuring President Milosovic into forcing
the Krajina Serbs to agree the US position." Recent ethnic
cleansing of Serbs from their homelands in West Slavonia and
the Krajina has demonstrated the truth of President
Tudjman's statement about the support promised by the US
Government a year ago. When UNPROFOR soldiers were killed by
the Croats, and were being used as human shields to deter
the Krajina Serbs from shooting at advancing Croatian
troops, US An Force ground
page 19
attack aircraft went into action. Not as one would expect to
attack the Croatian force, but rather they attacked and
destroyed a "Serb radar system", which the US spokesman
claimed had locked onto the aircraft. It turned out of
course that the ground installation hit and destroyed by the
US aircraft was the Serb communication centre linking the
area under Croat attack around Knin with other pants of the
Serb Krajina.
Arising from the formation of the Croat-Muslim Federation in
Bosnia, during the second half of 1994, the US created a
joint Croatian and Bosnian Muslim Military Command. At the
same time, the US Government dispatched to Croatia, Bosnia,
Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, a
number of "recently retired" US Army officers as "advisers"
. These advisers developed a coordinated military strategy
to defeat the Krajina Serbs and to secure the demands of the
Bosnian Muslim Government. In other words, to devise the
method and organisation required to fulfill the promises
made to President Tudjman in Washington DC, and those given
to the Bosnian Muslim Prime Minister, Haris Silajdzic, by US
Special Envoy Charles Redman in Geneva.
The US advisers also trained Croatian and Bosnian Muslim
officer cadres which in turn trained their own troops. In
the case of the Bosnian Muslims, the US advisers were
assisted by Turkish officers. While this training was in
progress, intelligence sources claim the advisers brought in
US Special Forces trained as communications specialists.
Their task was to provide sophisticated Communications,
Command, Control and Intelligence (C3I) links for the new,
joint Croat-Muslim Military Command, and to deploy with
ground troops as forward air controllers (FACs) capable of
calling in, and controlling, air strikes against ground
targets. Though initially denied, the deployment of the US
Special Forces was later admitted by a US Government
spokesman who said: "These communication specialists have
been sent to B-H to provide communication links covering the
possible withdrawal of UNPROFOR".
In addition to the US Special Forces units, an increasing
number of MUJAHEDIN began to arrive in the region. Many of
the MUJAHEDIN were seasoned Afghan fighters accompanied by
Islamist religious police to begin the radical Islamisation
of Bosnia. During the making of a BBC documentary featuring
General Sir Michael Rose, two of these black uniformed
religious police appeared and tried to prevent filming.
The US Strategy In Action; April to August 1995
In April this year, the Bosnian Muslim units in and around
Sarajevo began to bring out of hiding heavy weapons whose
existence UNPROFOR was not aware of. French troops kept a
log of many of the events and submitted
page 20
it to UNPROFOR Command in Sarajevo. when UNPROFOR troops
tried to investigate, the Bosnian Muslim forces blocked all
UNPROFOR operations in the Sarajevo area while they moved
the weapons into position. At the same time, large numbers
of Bosnian Muslim forces began to gather in rear of the
hills surrounding Sarajevo, and US-built C-130 Hercules
began to arrive at Tuzla airport at a rate of four per day.
The transport aircraft were unmarked but were manned by US
crews; the Bosnian Serbs recorded the crews' voices and say
-there is no doubt whatsoever that the crews were American.
It is reported that the aircraft brought in arms and
ammunition for use by the Bosnian Muslim forces gathering
around Sarajevo. It is estimated that at least 90,000 troops
arrived, including the very best Muslim Special Forces
units, with the exception of the Bosnian 5th Corps Special
Forces which remained at Bihac. Despite protests made by the
Bosnian Serb Government, no action was taken against the
heavy weapons sighted within the exclusion zone and the UN
Safe Haven of Sarajevo, which should be a demilitarised
city.
As an act of provocation designed to trigger NATO air
strikes against the Bosnian Serb forces, Bosnian Muslim
snipers killed two UNPROFOR soldiers serving with the French
contingent in Sarajevo. However, this event happened during
the French Presidential campaign which overshadowed media
coverage of the killing, plus the fact that UNPROFOR
commanders no longer attribute all such killings to the
Bosnian Serbs. UNPROFOR commanders on the spot now seem to
display a much more questioning attitude towards events that
occur just before a significant stage in the peace process.
This questioning attitude however seems to have little
effect in achieving more objective news coverage of events
that happen within the UN Safe Havens. Emotive TV reporting
of another alleged Serb mortar attack on Sarajevo in which
more than 30 people have died is being shown even as this
paper was being written.
On May 3, 1995, the Bosnian Muslim troops launched a major
offensive at 06.00 hrs and at 10.00 hrs, NATO air strikes
were made against Bosnian Serb positions ahead of the
Bosnian Muslim advance. The aircraft making the strikes were
mainly USAF F-16 fighters supported by USAF F-111s
reportedly acting in an air defense suppression role. In
addition, the Bosnian Serb forces say that a small number of
French, Spanish and Dutch aircraft took part in the air
strikes. The air strikes ceased only after the Bosnian Serbs
took UN troops hostage. Bosnian Serb intelligence says that
the hostages were only handcuffed to posts for a very brief
period to allow TV cameras to film footage for distribution
in the West. All those involved were well treated; on
Spain's national day, Spanish TV filmed their troops held
hostage telephoning home to parents, wives and girl friends.
The British troops said they had been well treated and that
they understood the military situation which caused their
detention, however
page 21
on their way out through Serbia and since, they have not
been permitted to make any comment to the media.
Unknown to the Bosnian Muslims and their US Advisers,
Bosnian Serb intelligence had secured a copy of the planned
Muslim offensive three days before it took place. Its main
objectives were to secure Mt. Igman, to destroy a major
portion of the Bosnian Serb Army and lift the siege on
Sarajevo. Attacks were launched from a number of locations
towards Sarajevo, including three major thrusts from Vares,
Visoko and Pazaric. Another line of attack moved behind Mt
Igman across Mt. Bjelasnica and Mt. Treskavica before one
column hooked left towards Sarajevo, and a second column
headed for Trnovo in an attempt to secure the road and
tunnel linking Sarajevo and Kalinovik. At the same time, the
Croats attacked Livno and Drvar in an attempt to drive a
wedge between the Krajina Serbs and Bosnian Serbs. According
to the Bosnian Serbs, it was quite clearly a two front
attack coordinated by the joint Croat-Muslim Command
headquarters.
At the Sarajevo battle, the Bosnian Serbs fell back to
prepared positions giving the impression that the Muslim
forces had them on the run. Indeed, at the time, some
Western media reported an outstanding success had been
achieved, the Serbs had been routed, and went on to
speculate that this offensive, by a well-equipped Muslim
army, could be a tuning point in the war in favour of the
Bosnian Muslim Government. According to Bosnian Serb
intelligence, the man who planned and executed the Muslim
offensive was former US Army General John Galvin, recently
retired and now advising the Bosnian Muslim Government in
Sarajevo. Last year he was in charge of the US Army's famous
military academy, West Point. Sadly for the Muslims they
fell into a classic military ploy. The Bosnian Serbs enticed
them into a large valley by retreating rapidly as the Muslim
Special Forces pressed home their attack. When the valley
was full of Muslim troops the Bosnian Serbs opened up from
the surrounding hills with heavy artillery, mortars and
machine guns. According to one quietly spoken Bosnian Serb
colonel it was horrific, he said: "It was a slaughter. Even
though I know they had come to slaughter us, I cannot be
joyful at so many deaths which could have been avoided if
only we had been allowed to remain united in Yugoslavia. In
past times we lived together in peace, all of us, Serbs,
Croats and Muslims. The Americans and Germans broke up
Yugoslavia, for what? Now they prolong the war, setting the
Croats and Muslims together against us, planning the war for
them, arming them and importing MUJAHEDIN into my country.
If he wants to manipulate land, tell President Clinton to go
back to Arkansas. I asked the colonel how many Bosnian
Muslim troops had been killed in the May offensive. He said:
"There were two offensives, not one."
page 22
It is difficult to judge how many died eventually, as the
Muslim Government imposed a curfew on Sarajevo on the excuse
that Serb snipers were in action, but this was to prevent
the people finding out what had happened. They set up field
hospitals but I think they could not cope with all the
casualties and many must have died of wounds. What I do know
is that the Bosnian Muslims lost many thousands of their
Special Forces who were spearheading the attack. In that one
valley there must have been more than 10,000 Bosnian Muslim
troops killed, and those were their best men He went on to
say: "You know, even after such a defeat, the Muslim
politicians still wanted more blood to be shed. They gave
orders immediately for the Muslim units in the enclaves to
launch attacks from Srebrenica, Gorazde, Tuzla and Bihac.
>From Srebrenica they launched three attacks in early June in
which 12 Serbs were killed and many houses burnt. They made
another two attacks from Srebrenica and Zepa using about 640
troops. The villages were not expecting the attack and many
Serbs were killed.
>From Gorazde they made two attacks towards Rogatica and
burnt Serb villages. In Gorazde the Muslims surrounded the
Ukrainian UNPROFOR unit and took their weapons and Armoured
Personnel Carriers. From Tusla there were three attacks
towards Majevica, and from Bihac the Muslim Special Forces
made four attacks in the direction of Petrovac and one
towards Novigrad". He concluded by saying: "The Muslims
wanted to provoke us into attacking the enclaves so that the
Muslim Government could demand that NATO must protect the
safe havens with air strikes and use the Rapid Reaction
Force to fight Bosnian Serbs at Gorazde, Zepa, Srebrenica
etc. ..Because the Muslims lost heavily at Sarajevo using an
American strategy, I believe the Muslims expected the
Americans to use NATO air strikes to punish Serbs. I don't
think we have seen the end yet, we are awaiting another
Muslim offensive and another staged incident by the Muslims
on Muslims in order to give the Americans an excuse to send
in NATO warplanes."
Summary
In conclusion I would just like to say that I think the
recent ethnic cleansing of more than 250,000 Krajina Serbs,
and before that of some 13,000 Serbs from West Slavonia, has
shown to the world the true face of Croatia today. It bears
striking similarities to the face it showed in 1941 with
Germany as midwife on both occasions. The difference this
second time is that the United States of America has
abandoned its ally of two major world wars, Serbia, and has
chosen instead to back a former enemy and its satellite
states on the one hand, and its most dangerous current
enemy, radical Islamist fundamentalism, on the other.
Significantly, even President Husni Mubarak of Egypt, a
Muslim state, opposed the US by saying
page 23
recently that the arms embargo against Bosnia-Herzegovina
should not be lifted. Egypt knows full well that Islamism --
radical, political terrorism using the face of Islam to
legitimise itself -- is no friend of the moderate Islamic
states nor of the West.
The United States will find in The not too distant future
that its actions in the former Yugoslavia have opened a
green route for Islamic fundamentalists into the heart of
Europe. A route down which drugs are already flowing in
increasing quantities.
T.W. "Bill" Carr, Associate Publisher, DEFENSE &
FOREIGN AFFAIRS STRATEGIC POLICY, a magazine published
for a private, paid-circulation, worldwide audience of
senior government officials, senior defense force
officers, intelligence analysts, senior defense industry
executives and academics engaged in strategic studies. Since
1990, he has visited the former Yugoslavia on a number of
occasions, holding in-depth discussions with a broad
spectrum of decision makers, including Government
Ministers, Senior Military Officers and those with
special responsibilities for public health and the care of
refugees He has researched and written extensively on Balkan
issues for the past five years. A Royal Marine for 19 years,
Bill Carr served with Britain's elite "Green Berets" in 40
and 41 Commando Units on board the Commando Carriers HMS
Bulwark and HMS Albion, primarily in Cyprus, North Africa,
the Middle East and the Far East. On retiring from the Royal
Marines he joined an international industrial marketing
agency during which time he became a group Chief Executive
with European responsibility for a number of European and
US companies. He holds a degree in Business Studies, and a
UK National Diploma in Marketing, Advertising and Public
Relations.
page 24
Copyright © 1996,1997 Srpska Mreza All Rights Reserved.
Last revised: Jan. 23, 1997
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