This viewpoint is in response to Ben Harburg's Mar. 16 Viewpoint titled "A Milosevic retrospective: prospects for international justice." Although I acknowledge Ben's experience and admire his decision to work at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, his recent article demonstrates an evident lack of understanding of the Balkans and the complexity of Yugoslavia's disintegration.
The most troubling aspect of Ben's article is his decision to utilize extremely one-sided and often misleading examples. According to Ben, there exist three categories of war criminals: paramilitary troops, racial supremacists and political opportunists. His first example is Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic, a Serb paramilitary leader turned local gangster who was gunned down in a Belgrade hotel in 2000. Although Raznatovic was never tried for his crimes, there is ample evidence to suggest his culpability.
Nevertheless, Arkan and his "Tigers" were not the only paramilitary group operating during the unruly fragmentation of Yugoslavia. The HOS, for example, was a Croatian paramilitary unit dedicated to ethnically cleansing the Serbian minority from Croatia. They were an extreme right-wing organization bent on resurrecting the Ustasha movement.
The Ustasha militia was a fascist organization sponsored by Nazi Germany. It organized the extermination of roughly half a million Serbs and thousands of Jews during World War II. The HOS was devoted to restoring this fascist movement and took part in the forced expulsion and ethnic cleansing of 250,000 Serbs from Croatia during the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.
The second category consisted of racial supremacists. Here the example was Vojislav Seselj, or "Vidjisalv" Seselj, as Ben identifies him in his article. Vojislav Seselj is an extreme Serbian nationalist whose sanity is questionable at best. Thus, Ben's description of Seselj as a racial and cultural supremacist may not be that far off.
However, Seselj was only one of many such fanatics in the former Yugoslavia. In fact, Franjo Tudjman, the late Croatian president, appears to be one such example. In his book, "Wastelands - Historical Truth," Tudjman essentially praises the Ustasha movement, questions the number of Serbs and Jews exterminated during the Holocaust and displays an evident degree of anti-Semitism. In his Viewpoint, it would have been more appropriate for Ben to compare Tudjman's book to "Mein Kampf" as opposed to Seselj's rhetoric.
The late president of Bosnia, Alija Izetbegovic, resembles Seselj and Tudjman in his tendency to promote intolerance and cultural supremacy. In his 1990 book titled "The Islamic Declaration," Izetbegovic asserts, "The first and foremost of such conclusions is surely the one on the compatibility of Islam and non-Islamic systems. There can be no peace or coexistence between the 'Islamic faith' and the non-Islamic societies and political institutions... Islam clearly excludes the right and possibility of activity of any strange ideology on its own turf."
According to Ben, the third and final category of war criminals is "composed of individuals regarded as political opportunists and de facto war profiteers." Indeed, Ben is absolutely correct in his assertion that Slobodan Milosevic falls into this category. Unlike Tudjman and Izetbegovic, Milosevic was not a true nationalist; he was simply a power-hungry opportunist seeking to exploit Serbian sentiments of vulnerability and anxiety. Ultimately, a significant portion of the blame for the bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia rests with Milosevic.
Thus, Ben and I share nearly identical views with regard to Raznatovic, Seselj and Milosevic. Why, then, was I so outraged by his Viewpoint?
In his Viewpoint, Ben identifies and describes three indicted war criminals, all of them Serbs. This is unacceptable. The conflicts in the former Yugoslavia dragged on for several years and involved numerous parties. In fact, the detainees at the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia are Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian-Muslim, Albanian and Macedonian.
Instead of Raznatovic and his paramilitary group, why not discuss the Croatian HOS? Rather than exclusively labeling Seselj as a cultural supremacist, why not identify Tudjman and Izetbegovic as well?
While discussing Milosevic's indictment, why not mention that both Tudjman and Izetbegovic were being investigated for similar crimes by the Tribunal prior to their deaths in 1999 and 2003, respectively?
Throughout his article, Ben makes several references to generic war crimes and war criminals. For example, while discussing political opportunists and war profiteers, he declares that "these individuals were not truly racists or warmongers, but they saw violence and polarizing anti-Albanian and Bosnian rhetoric as a means of wielding political power over Serbia and its neighboring states."
Thus, Ben implies that all of these war criminals originated exclusively from Serbia. However, anyone even remotely familiar with the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia will recognize that, while certainly present in Serbia, leaders from both Croatia and Bosnia represented such individuals as well.
The conflicts in the former Yugoslavia were plagued with innumerable atrocities and ethnic cleansing. Reading Ben's article, one would think that these atrocities were committed exclusively by Serbs and that Slobodan Milosevic is solely to blame for the bloody fragmentation of Yugoslavia.
This is far from true, however. Roughly 250,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from Croatia, while another 300,000 have been forced from their homes in Kosovo.
The Serbs that remain in Kosovo live in isolated ghettos, unable to leave their homes for fear of being attacked by the majority ethnic Albanian population. Of the 100,000-120,000 individuals killed in the Bosnian conflict, approximately 32,000-40,000 were Serbs.
Nevertheless, the purpose of this Viewpoint is not to prove that Serbs suffered more than any other ethnic group in the former Yugoslavia; rather, its aim is to demonstrate that the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia resulted in the suffering of all ethnic groups and can ultimately be attributed to a diverse collection of individuals. Milosevic, Tudjman, Izetbegovic and the international community are all to blame for the bloody collapse of Yugoslavia.
Daniel Vajdic is a sophomore majoring in International Relations.
