From: draskovi@usc.edu (Zoran Draskovic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.europe
Subject: European
Date: 8 Sep 1992 23:56:51 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: aludra.usc.edu


    "The EUROPEAN", No. 0120, Brussels-London-Paris-Berlin-Moscow, 
    27-30 avgust, strana 8 

    Alfred Sherman believes an independent Bosnia was always a bad idea 

    "Alfred Sherman, The land where three into one just will not go" 

    There is no need for European countries to grapple with intractable 
    task of absorbing milions of Muslims from Bosnia. There is ample room 
    for both them and province's Croats and Serbs inside Bosnia. A 
    political solution - a pre-condition for the Muslims' return and an 
    end to fighting - is now possible; but if the London Conference fails 
    to deliver this political settlement, it will have done more harm than 
    good. 

    President Alija Izetbegovic and his Muslim fundamentalist associates 
    who nominally rule Bosnia have brought disaster to their people. Both 
    before and after the Second World War, Muslims enjoyed religious 
    freedom and top jobs within Yugoslavia. By ganging up again with 
    Croats against Serbs, as they did with Hitler's blessing in 1941, the 
    Muslims have unleashed Serbian fury against their civilian population. 

    Izetbegovic's objective of creating a fundamentalist Muslim Bosnia 
    allied to Croatia is contradiction in terms. Croatian nationalism has 
    always sought a Greater Croatia embodying Bosnia and fundamentalism 
    never enjoyed the support of all Muslims. Izetbegovic's dream of a 
    "Bosnian Pakistan" has become a nigtmare. Clearly, the Muslims come to 
    terms with the Serbs. 

    In Croatia, President Franjo Tudjman's alliance of ex-communists and 
    fascists promised that with German help they would play Muslims off 
    against Serbs to,  "regain" Bosnia with weakened Muslims playing only 
    second fiddle. Instead, they have a long drawn out war on their hands, 
    and find themselves having to deal with an influx of both Bosnian and 
    Croat refugees fleeing from Serb-controlled land. 

    Agreement on Bosnia will be possible only if the Croats concede 
    autonomy to the Serb-inhabited Marches which separate Croatia from  
    the Bosnia, now under the control of Serb militias. So far, President 
    Tudjman has attempted to avoid this by double dealing - promising the 
    Muslims help against the Serbs to maintain Bosnia's integrity, while 
    at  the same time annexing larger areas de facto. Comunist-style 
    repression  in his one-party state will not silence calls for peace. 

    The Serbs, for their part, are learning that world opinion can not be 
    ignored and that no matter how they paint it, "ethnic cleansing" will 
    not be tolerated. 

    The time is therefore ripe for a political solution based on the 
    status  quo. There is no alternative but to find a peace settlement 
    which meets  legitimate Serb needs for equality inside Bosnia as part 
    of single  Serbian nation. 

    The Croat and Serb populated areas of Bosnia should be linked with  
    Croatia and Serbia respectively, with open borders. Alternatively,  
    Croat majority areas in western Herzegovina and in Sava Valley, which  
    contain most of Bosnia's Croats, could be annexed to Croatia, as 
    Croats  have been demanding on and off for decades. In return, Croatia 
    would  abandon its claims on Bosnia and cease interfering there, 
    letting Serbs  and Muslims work out their own salvation. 

    Peaceful coexistence will be possible only in  a secular Bosnia where 
    religion is a matter of personal choise. The majority of Bosnian 
    Muslims regard themselves primarily as Yugoslavs rather than any other 
    ethnic group. Secular identity was the status quo till 1971, when Tito 
    changed it for oportunistic reasons. 

    Cantonisation - which Izetbegovic agreed last year under EC auspices 
    but reneged on - and closer links with Yugoslavia would obviate calls 
    for ethnic homogeneity and the redistribution of population, least at 
    all in the brutal form of "ethnic cleansing". 

    The right of return for all refugees and restoration of their property 
    is an essential part of a lasting peace. However, families who no 
    longer feel safe in their old surrounding should be able to sell their 
    homes, farms or businesses and move to live among their own kind 
    elsewhere in Bosnia. Having played so large a part in precipitating 
    the problem, the EC should set up  a revolving fund, to purhase 
    migrant's  property and re-sell it to imigrants from other parts of 
    Bosnia. This  would save recurring humanitarian aid, which generates 
    dependency.  Bosnian Muslims would re-adjust, whereas if they were 
    long term refuges in Europe they would become a festering sore and 
    seedbed for terrorism. 

    Experience has shown that German initiated EC promotion  of an 
    independent Muslim-dominated, anti-Serb Bosnia was recipe for 
    disaster. By the same token, the EC cannot turn an amalgam of 
    provinces into a visible nation-state. 

    Outside military intervention even if European public opinion  allowed 
    it, would prolong the fighting and refugee flow. Why should helpless 
    civilians pay the price for Chancellor Kohl's neo-Bismarkian 
    presumptions? 
Xref: sparky soc.culture.europe:8223 soc.culture.greek:8630 soc.culture.yugoslavia:8603