BOSNIA FEATURE Questions and Answers
For a Workers Republic1995No public scan is online for this item; the text below was read from a privately held copy.
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Scan page 7
on Bosnia.
A near hoiocaust is raging in Bosnia. Mass killings, organised rape, etnnic cleansing all happening in a country only three hours flight away. Yet the horrors are greeted with apatny and mndtiiierence. No mass European solidarity movement has been created. Experts and opinion formers argue that the absence of a mass solidarity movement with Bosnia is a good thing indicating an appreciation for the complexity of the conflict in the region. Below we challenge this orthodoxy by arguing that the political rights ane wrongs are ciear cut and the solution stirring us in the face.
Q. Why should we worry? It’s iust foreigners fighting over no particular point of principle.
A. Troisky once said: “You may not be interested in the war, but the war is interested in you”. The war in Bosnia is inspired by great Serbian nationalism. Such far night nafiucai forces around tne: World, rhea isa testing sional A big victory fr resin site tacties in sci n WW ould certain act asa mode! to other reacuonary movements and open up a penod of nght wing reaction on a much grander scale. Now is the ume lo tight the developing trend.
Q. Aren’t the causes of the war toc compiex to unscrambie?
A. Noiatali P he old Y ugoslavia Was an associauon ot national Repubiles with the right te secession guaranteed TD wens fe ~ tbeve ce bees nee cee ck owed RCDUTUCS GHG Lis Cy Whe pics Oncu ific t uo G. Arent the Serbs fighting fo preserve socialism in the former Yugoslavia?
A. Absolutely not. The Milosevic regime is a decaying Stalinist dictatorship dedicated to integraung Serbia in to the capitalist world market. The Icadership stoked up the already existing nationalism for the purpose of staying in power. Great Serb nationalism and the expansionist programme has got no connection with socialism. Al! tne regimes arising oul oi ine jormer Yugosiavia are pro-capi alisi.
Q. Sureiy the best thing to do is to pressure the UN to impose a settlement?
collective interests of the impenalists powers.
The tact that Bosnia was lor so long beyond the reach ol capitalism means that there has been no single impenaiist powcr lo take charge. All the great powers have ditlering longer term interests. Britain and France have taken the support this bur ins to. dew elanthe The US and Germany s - this checks Serbian expansion awn base tn Croatia without any policy of defending the democratic nghts of minontcs. Multi-cthnic Bosnia is to be squcezcd in the middic. The firmest UN policy tw Gaic has been to Impose an arms blockade on the chic! vicums of the conllict. Stratcgicaliy the UN 1s using lorcee to prevent the Bosnians dcienuing (hemsei ves and prov iding icu and Dunudayges for tiie clinically Clvutiacd. ie UN Gis fui Ww ish iG bee a yee eh SOMAGRLEEE Pfast wvhiat th: Serbs isp of: that they have alrea dy stolen Q. Butisn't the UN getting tough following the London conference?
munimalist in purpose. They will aim at shaping and pig serbian oe eae rather than thwarting them.
Serbia NaHS Witt TOSPe tid ia te UN FT Oy LCULLp ad rarils aWiichine their muin efforts ie other KON eHues in capable of varving their targets for the sake of coe es Rosnia The EIN fs perfecths amare that the Serhs arc : rns eee assuaging the westem media. [n this sense the relauonship between the UN and the Serbs is a ntual game of collusion. There 1s no possibility ol the UN rescuing Bosmia Irom destruchion and dismemberment.
Q. Wouldn’t arming the Bosnians simply increase the slaughter?
For A Workers Republic. Page 7
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A. We have long argued that the war could have been ended much earlier. The Serbian ardour for warts inspired by the knowledge that they are fighting a poorly armed Bosnian army. Appraised in numbers the Bosnian army is the bigger. The determining factor favouring a serbian victory ts down to the fact that they have the use of about 300 tanks and 500 heavy artillery pieces commandeered from the Serb controlled federal army. This imbalance in arms makes lor a serbian willingness to continue with the greater serbian project. Only when the Serbs begin to taste the bitter flavour of defeat will peace be a genuine possibility again. The key then isa lifting of the arms embargo.
Q. Wouldn't a better armed Bosnian army turn to ethnic cleansing on the same scale as the serbians therefore making a mockery out of lifting the arms embargo.
A This presupposes that the war is a civil war which it is not. The Bosnian army is not a Muslim army it contains many thousands of non Muslim Bosnians including many ethnic Serbs. Bosnian independence is supported by the serbian and Croatian councils. Even if the Muslims decided to depart from the multi ethnic ideal they would sull have a powertul selfish interest in refraining from cthnic cleansing. Any large scale attacks on4he non Muslim population would lead to a full scale intervention by the serbian army proper something that the Bosnian forces could not even hope to {ight against. The strategic interests of the Bosnian Muslims includes adopting a multi -ethnic political way forward. The lifting of the’arms embargo is nota recipe for more atrocities in Bosnia but the only way of bringing them to a close, Q What are the central political principles at stake in the crisis in Bosnia?
A. The most immediate political task is for socialists to stand up and defend the nght of national self determination when that has been freely adopted by the large majonty in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia. The only way to prevent such choices is to use massive force as the serbian nationalists have attempted to do. After that we should struggle hard for the recognition of minority nghts and argue for workers unity across all national, religious and cultural boundanes. We should support the idea of a socialist fedcration for Yugoslavia but argue that itcan only come from a recomposition of the worker’s movement. Defeating greater Serb chauvanism is the Ist strp to making this possible.
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in tne Federal consutuuion. The nco-suiinist Sedalia in SCBia sci ait vii ibe MINA Tiy Hie Maiiertiai ates oi the ae
A. The UN Is not an instrument dedicated Lo peace and justice. lt 1s mostly a mechanism Jor rubber stamping thie
A Ne. The London comterence rsanother gathering of the lor. ee new UN usaatieied military acuivilics seit be