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Subject: Re: BROKEN EUROPEAN DREAM
From: Marko Peljhan <makrolab@ljudmila.org>
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 1997 13:46:46 +0200

* * * * *

hello,

continueing the debate here and a message to the "largest and most
powerfull nation in the balkans"....

I cannot accept the simplifications aart is providing as the cause of
the conflicts in the former yugoslavia and this forum is not big enough,
nor do I have enough time to go through all of the details connected to
the conflict and many analysis have been made in the conjunction of
thesis similar to his.
(i.e. foreign influence, europe arming slovenia, croatia, bosnia!, the
dangerous germany, the dangerous vatican, the dangerous austria, the
powerfull, the weak etc.).
It's almost like listening to our "defense education" (yes, we had this
during socialist rule in yugoslavia) professor in high school.

I will again make a few claims:

1. the war is far from being over
2. the indicted war criminals are still at large and under nominal
protection of the new yugoslav state (nobody seems to be eager to arrest
them)
3. just yesterday germany, the big friend, interrupted all relations
with the bosnian federation because of problems with the laws connected
to ambasadorial appointments by the federation, which have to be divided
into three nationalities. laws they are changin' now....
4. the texas analogy and american federalism analogy is a large and
complex topic, with very difficult legal implications. just an example,
many of the contemporary laws contradict or are not really true to the
american constitution. i would of course have to look into the SFRJ
constitution from 1972 to exactly check how the secession issue is
defined, i believe it was defined as concesuall, meaning that all
republics involved would concede to the seceeding republic the right to
be independent. but constitution in slovenia p.e. was changed already in
1990, alowing the move towards independence and not contradicting the yu
constitution from 1972. same went for bosnia and croatia. the
referendums there succeded.
5. the serbian government together with the yugoslav federal army can be
held accountable for the initiation of the conflict in Slovenia, Croatia
and Bosnia, although everybody understands that for a real confilct,
which all of them in their large differences were, you need at least two
parties.
6. to claim that the bosnian government, or the muslims in bosnia
initiated the conflict there - is to mask reality. this war was far from
being just war for territory, it is and was war for economic domination
and ideological control and that's how it started with the memorandum of
the serb academy of sciences, i believe in 1986 or 1987.
7. the whole complexity of events that happened in former yugoslavia
between 1986 and 1997 and are still continueing probably cannot be
summed up quickly and simply, although the thesis of european involvment
(which i btw. see as lack of involvment) is quite bleak in the light of
the semi organised extermination of the muslim population bye the serb
and croat paramilitary forces during the war in bosnia and a very slow
and unprecise reaction from the so much "feared" europe.

anyway, we can continue, but there are books, there are documentaries,
there are newspapers, archives, doctoral thesis, lectures, images,
videos, net pages, documents, memories, and last but not least, there's
the people from sarajevo, tuzla, srebrenica, pale, gorazde, foca,
zvornik, banja luka, prijedor, mostar, bihac.......bosnia. who have seen
it and experienced it all. and who talk about it. and write. and make
films. and it's up to each individual to study the above and decide, and
it's not a simple decision.
i have decided.

regards,


marko peljhan