From: Joel Sax <jsax@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Date: 26 Sep 92 22:14 PDT
Subject: MIRacles No. 12
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1475300378:000:13367
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!jsax    Sep 26 22:14:00 1992


From: Joel Sax <jsax>
Subject: MIRacles No. 12

=================================================================
MIRacles No. 12                                    Joel GAzis-SAx
25 Rujan 1992, Palo Alto California                           QEP
=================================================================
Copyright 1992 by Joel GAzis-SAx

[The next few installments of MIRacles are written from my home in 
California.  I hope to return to former Yugoslavia soon]

"What are two Americans doing in Serbia?"  The Serb who shared our 
couchette cabin on the train ride from Beograd to Skopje was 
perplexed.  Like many outsiders to the region, he believed that 
the border was closed to us, that we would not be allowed in.  
When I offered my passport as proof that it was not, he asked his 
question again.  This time I explained that we were Quakers on a 
mission of peace.  "We are here," I said, "because we want to 
support the voices for peace and because we do not want the people 
of Serbia to die in an Allied bombing." 

I have come to like the Serbs as I like the Croats and I regret 
that I did not spend more time in new Yugoslavia.  They are not 
the dark, violent animals that the Croatian press depicts them as:  
they are like us.  They laugh, they cry, they enjoy good food.  
Once, during my trip, I had dinner in a Beograd restaurant whose 
walls were covered with wrought iron Serbian royalist symbols (the 
four Cs in a quadrant) and portraits of old Serbian leaders.  As I 
ate, I overcame my initial chill at the decor when I realized that 
this was nothing more sinister in these designs than the eagle and 
flag covered walls of some American restaurants.  Nothing in these 
symbols by themselves implies violence.  And nothing in the nature 
of the Serbian people that is not present in other people makes 
them especially prone to violence.  The Serbs have been led into 
war and bloodshed by certain ultra-nationalist politicians.  By no 
means are they unreachable.  Peace can be made with the Serbs. 

My fellow American, Brethren volunteer Eric Bachmann, reminds me 
that the first refugees of this war were Serbs.  Tens of thousands 
of Serbs, spurred by a false Beograd television report of a 
massacre, either abandoned their Croatian homes or took up arms.  
Franjo Tudjman's move to fire many Serb managers plus the history 
of Utashi actions against the Serbs during World War II gave 
credence to the lie.  When Bosnia seceded, Serbs in that country 
were told that the Muslims had declared a jihad against them.  
Though the feelings may be based on the lies told to them, we must 
remember that the feelings of fear that the Krajina Serbs feel are 
very real.  If we are to solve the war in former Yugoslavia, we 
must take these attitudes very seriously. 

Many people have suffered in this war and suffered terribly.  The 
whole region will struggle to recover for many years.  Though 
Serbia itself has not been attacked, Serb communities and 
households in Croatia and Bosnia have.  Serbs have suffered 
reprisals from both the Croat and Bosnian armies.  House 
demolitions and evictions of Serbian families are common events in 
Croatia.  We should not forget the Serbs who, when Vukovar came 
under siege, endured the shelling alongside their Croat neighbors 
and friends.  The myth that the Serbs have suffered nothing in 
this war must be challenged.  Peace activists have an obligation 
to take the side of all the war's victims and oppose all ultra-
nationalist political ideologies. 

We must also seek alternatives to military solutions and support 
the Serbian peace movement.  The biggest source of conflict 
between the Zagreb and the Beograd peace movements is the question 
of military intervention.  The ambivalence of the Zagreb activists 
is understandable given the terrible damage in Slavonia and 
Dalmatia.  Some activists, moved by the frustrating lack of an 
effective peace process, have renounced their pacifist and anti-
militarist views to take up arms.  

The reaction of the Beograd activists to the decision of many 
Zagreb activists to support military intervention is 
understandable, too.  "We have been struggling with our government 
to end the killing of Croats and Bosnians," they argue.  "You 
respond by telling us and the whole world that the solution is to 
kill us.  Whatever happened to peace?"  Or as Zoritsa Trifunovic 
of the Beograd Peace Center puts it:  "We are against our 
soldiers.  We are against all soldiers.  We are against all 
intervention.  Why should we be for this one intervention now?" 

The struggle of the Beograd activists against the "horrible music 
of tanks" is, perhaps, the most under appreciated story of the 
war.  Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators turn out for 
candlelight vigils and demonstrations at public buildings, the 
Orthodox Metropolitan, and the Beograd television station.  In 
nearby Pancevo, Serbs cut out yellow paper stars and pinned them 
to their chests to protest extremist attacks on their Croat 
neighbors and friends.  "If the Croats go," these brave citizens 
declared, "we will go with them." 

Journalists, I think, have remained indifferent to these actions 
because the media is committed to promoting military intervention.  
It sells papers and increases the ratings.  Anything which takes 
the knives out of the hands of the Serbs and gives them a human, 
compassionate face threatens the Western media by denying it 
sensationalist tidbits.  The danger is that when we depict the 
Serbs as killers, we are preparing ourselves to be killers.  

When I returned to Zagreb from my first trip to Serbia, I talked 
for awhile with a young Croat American at the International Press 
Office.  "I keep hearing these stories about all the resistance to 
Milosevic," he said to me.  "But what I want to know is why all 
these brave Serbs don't throw Milosevic out."  Later he wanted to 
know whether "the Chetniks" were still marching down the streets 
of Beograd "like Nazis".

I had to disappoint him with my report:  I saw nothing of the sort 
during my visit.  Today, after my second trip, I would add 
that I still saw no marching Chetniks in Beograd.  Zagreb, on the 
other hand, boasts the fortified headquarters of the ultra-right 
paramilitarist organization HOS.  Mercenaries, proudly wearing 
iron crosses and other Fascist insignia, hold drunken parties in 
Trg Jelacica on some Saturday nights.  Emblems associated with 
HOS, Fascism, and the infamous Black Legion are favorite souvenirs 
in the main city marketplace.  Stepanovic Drusko, the Serbian 
Socialist Party hack from Subotica [see MIRacles No. 8], impressed 
me with his deceptions and doubletalk, but he was right about one 
thing:  you do not see the kind of militarist nationalism in 
Beograd that is everywhere in Zagreb. 

Many Croat sympathizers and the world press want inhuman Serbs.  
The noblest and most dangerous response to this war that any peace 
activist -- be he or she pacifist or anti-militarist by 
inclination -- can make is to challenge this myth.  This is not to 
deny Serbian attacks on Vukovar and Sarajevo:  rather it is to 
reject simplifications and to affirm the complexity of the 
situation.  It is to insist on peaceful solutions instead of 
military ones.  Zagreb has been a place of pilgrimage for the 
Western peace movement.  Beograd sees nearly no one.  Our vision 
cannot help but be distorted by one-sided "peace tours".   As 
Americans, as Europeans, as Asians or Africans we must have the 
courage to visit Serbia, to engage her people, to challenge her 
politicians -- both the good and the bad --, to support those 
laboring for reconciliation, and to do all that we can to seek a 
peace that will come through means other than genocide. 
================================================================= 
NATIONAL SYMBOLS:   National symbols possess an energy that makes 
them prime targets for being co-opted by extremists on both sides.  
The four Cs in a quadrant of the Serbs and the chessboard shield 
of the Croats (both very old symbols) have their histories of use 
by the worst elements in both societies.  The Chetniks, for 
example, made use of the royalist motif in their symbolism and 
today, Serbian extremists continue to act as if this insignia 
belongs exclusively to them.  Also, many observers panic when they 
see the checkerboard shield of the Croats because the Utasha used 
this emblem during the Second World War. 

I have included this discussion because in MIRacles No. 11 I made 
a mistake when I identified the four Cs as a "Chetnik" symbol.  
Here in America, the John Birch Society uses the Stars and 
Stripes.  This does not yield ownership of the flag to the right 
wing.  We should be careful when we describe the meanings of the 
Croat, the Serb, or any national symbol.

================================================================= 

ACTIONS:

1.  I am saddened by the recent UN decision to expel Yugoslavia.  
Friends everywhere should contact their elected representatives 
and foreign policy officials to protest this action.  As I have 
said in previous messages, it is important that the people of 
Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia talk.  Expelling one of the parties to 
the conflict only gives violent nationalists a rallying point, 
obstructs dialogue, and leads to further war. 

It is important to stress that the peoples of former Yugoslavia 
must solve this conflict for themselves.  Answering the call for 
military intervention here will only encourage other peoples to 
solve their problems with violence in the hope that greater powers 
will see the justice of their cause, and eliminate their 
opposition.  A Croat told me that he believed that will end only 
when the Croats, Bosnians, and Serbs want it to end.  I believe 
the desire is already there in nearly everyone I have met.  We 
must do what we can to support the voices for peace in former 
Yugoslavia. 

2.  Another thing to press for is a mechanism which will make it 
easier for hospitals in Serbia and Montenegro to buy medicines.  
Due to the freeze on Yugoslavia's assets under the sanctions, 
hospitals find it impossible to buy the medicines they need.  
Ultra-nationalist politicians are making an issue of this in their 
quest to maintain power.  "See," they say, "the world is trying to 
kill the Serbian people.  You must be prepared to fight for your 
lives."

My good friend Zoltan Toth, assistant to the mayor of Subotica, 
suggests two approaches.  One is to restrict the use of Yugoslav 
holdings in foreign banks to the purchase of medicines.  The other 
is to allow Yugoslav hospitals to buy the medicine and equipment 
they need on credit (payable within six months of the end of 
sanctions.)  These two approaches will ensure that the Serbian and 
Montenegran people receive adequate medical care and will deny 
violent nationalists a significant rallying point.
================================================================= 
OFFERING:  I am willing to come to your community to discuss what 
I have seen in former Yugoslavia.  My topics include human rights 
in Croatia and Serbia, the destruction of Slavonia (with slides of 
Osijek and Vukovar), the peace movement in Croatia and in Serbia, 
why military intervention will not work, and effects of the 
sanctions on Serbia and Macedonia.  Call 415-321-3449 (evenings) 
to arrange a speaking date. 
=================================================================
GRATITUDES:  Thanks to all the Friends in America, Britain, and 
Europe who helped me with the expenses of this trip.  Thanks to 
all the Friends from Britain and Europe who took the time to write 
letters of support and encouragement. Your letters helped see me 
through some times when I felt alone or that my mission was of no 
value. 
================================================================= 
ABOUT THE TITLE 

Brethren theologian Dale Brown once counted the belief in miracles 
as an essential component in the psychic constituency of the peace 
activist.  "Mir" is the word for "peace" in Croatian, Serbian, and 
most other Slavic languages.  The title, therefore, reflects the 
author's belief in the power of persistant peacemaking. 

=================================================================

This publication is circulated over the Alliance for Progressive 
Communications Network, UseNet, EcuNet, Quaker-L, QuakerNet, and 
other networks  by Joel GAzis-SAx.  Users are free to download 
MIRacles for their personal use, but are asked to make a donation 
to support the costs of publication.  Checks or money orders made 
out in U.S. dollars to Palo Alto Friends Meeting and earmarked 
"Peace in the Balkans Fund" may be sent to: 

     Palo Alto Friends Meeting
     957 Colorado Avenue
     Palo Alto, California     94303
     U.S.A.

European Friends may send their donations to:

     FWCC
     1 Rue B. Haal
     L-1711  LUXEMBOURG

or via the FWCC postal account -> 32356-55/F. Perna/Luxembourg <-
mentioning "Peace in the Balkans".

These reports may be recirculated without editorial correction or
comment via e-mail or photocopied for community use at a charge
not to exceed the price of copying.


their symbolism and 
today, Serbian extremists continue to act as if this insignia 
belongs exclusively to th