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History Of The Conflict In The Balkans (стр. 2 из 2)

time that Croatia declared it?s independence, however, Serbs had lived

in those regions for generations and came to think of it as their

homeland. The Croats, however, failed to recognize the Serbs and give

them citizenship in the new Croatian state.

Serbs on Croatia had considered themselves equal to Croats

living next door yet it appeared that every chance Franjo Tudjman got,

he took the opportunity to elevate the Croat while lowing the status

of the Serb. The Croat flag was altered so that the checkerboard, a

long time symbol of Croats and, unfortunately, of the Ustasha, was

emblazoned onto the flag. Serb travel had been restricted, Serb

participation in government was becoming limited and the military

began taking strategic positions with Serb majority areas (Glenny,

93). Clearly, with so many tanks, guns, and soldiers, the stage was

set for armed conflict.

The armed conflict in these Serb pockets of population came to

a head in Knin, where Croats were a minority while Serbs maintained a

majority. Milosevic saw these Serbs as an opportunity to, if not

save Yugoslavia as it was, then to at least expand what remained of

Yugoslavia as much as possible. Milosevic, with the help of Jovan

Raskovic, began to stir trouble in the city of Knin. They reminded

the Serbs living in Croatia of the atrocities that the Ustasha

inflicted upon the Serbs who had lived there during the Second World

War and that the same thing was happening again to the Serbs at the

hands of Croat fascists. Serb media told tales of the new nationalist

regime in Croatia coming to wipe out anything not Croat.

The Serbs in Croatia reacted to their treatment by holding a

referendum which was declared null and void by Tudjman. However, Serb

areas voted to leave Croatia. Theoretically, the Croats should have

been able to quell the rebellion. This was not the case because when

the Croatian police sent three helicopters to the area to take control

and stop the protests, they were met with two MiG aircraft from the

JNA and threatened to be shot down if they failed to turn around.

Obviously, at this point, the situation is getting tenuous

enough for the international community to take an interest in what is

going on. Two, armed aircraft from the Yugoslav Army confronted three

helicopters from Croatia. By this time, the international community

had recognized the independence of Slovenia and Croatia upon the lead

from Germany but they were still allowing the remainder of Yugoslavia,

essentially the Serbs, to engage in warfare with Croatia.

So, why didn?t the United States intervene at this point?

Several answers are viable. The first and foremost reason for a lack

of intervention has to do with our newly emerging relationship with

Russia. Russians had been closely aligned with Serbs during World War

II and this relationship continues onward even until today. Telling

the Serbs that the United States was going to enter Yugoslavia and

stop the violence was to say that the United States was going to go

into Yugoslavia and crush the Serbs, who controlled the government and

the JNA. We were trying desperately to form close, personal ties with

Russia to support their efforts toward a market economy and democracy

to prevent the Russian government and their nuclear weapons to fall

into the wrong hands. To offend the Serbs, and thus the Russians,

would have been political suicide.

Second, what exactly did Yugoslavia mean to the United States.

As stated above, with the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Cold War

was over. We no longer needed to nurture ties between Eastern

European states in order to head off the spread of Communism.

Yugoslavia didn?t have an impressive economy where American business

interested could invest and reap massive dividends. Much like most of

the Eastern and especially Southeastern European nations, the economy

was lackluster and uninviting to foreign investment.

The third reason that the United States chose not to interfere

and perhaps the most important is that intervening would imply a long

term commitment of men, equipment, and supplies. The recent Gulf War

had devoured many of the resources that would have been needed to

complete an operation in Yugoslavia. Furthermore, the terrain of the

area was as inhospitable as Viet Nam?s was in the 1960?s and 1970?s.

Engaging the military in an operation in Yugoslavia would offer the

same challenges that Viet Nam offered. There was no popular support

for either side of the conflict in the United States. What monetary

or economic gain could be made by intervention? Finally, who really

cared? I know that last one seems particularly cruel but if we

examine the conflict, the people of Yugoslavia and those people alone

seemed to be the only ones feeling the effects of the battles. The

fighting was primarily in Croatia… not in Greece… not in

Hungary… and not in Italy. Perhaps the e!

xecutive branch of the United States considered this to be a rather

internal problem and not the concern of the international community.

Germany didn?t help matters either by jumping the gun and

recognizing Croatia before it met the standards set by the European

Community. Under the EC plan, Croatia would have to make a

constitutional provision recognizing Serbs living in Croatia as

citizens of Croatia and protecting them with equal status. Germany,

eager to stop the armed conflicts within Croatia, officially

recognized Croatia?s independence and thus, forced the rest of the EC

to do so as well.

The third phase of the disintegration of Yugoslavia is marked

by a decidedly different approach to the Balkans by the international

community. The European Community, lead almost unwillingly by

Germany, offers to recognize Croatia and Slovenia as independent in

January of 1992. By March of 1992, Bosnia itself had attained the

standards that the EC set for recognition of independence. Sixty-four

percent of the population voted in a referendum for independence while

most of the Serbs abstained. By this time as well, it had become

apparent that Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic had planned to take over

about two-thirds of Bosnia. The United States and other allies

considered recognizing the sovereignty of Bosnia as a way to avert the

impending military action.

In March of 1992, the United States pushed for the

independence of all four of the breakaway republics (Croatia,

Slovenia, Bosnia, and Macedonia). On April 6 and 7, the United States

recognized Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia (Macedonia was left off the

list due to pressure from Greece.) This recognition of sovereignty

was a few days too late. Several days earlier, the Serbs had begun

their attacks. They were better equipped, better trained, and in

better position. The Bosnian army had been overwhelmed (Zimmerman,

9).

What was the United States? position on the Serb attacks? The

American government announced that it intended to withdraw it?s

ambassador from Belgrade. This was merely symbolic since the embassy

itself was still intact and under the control of a charg? d?affaires.

On May 30, the United Nations, at the request of the United States

imposed an economic embargo against Serbia. This embargo was similar

to that imposed upon Iraq during and after the Gulf War.

President Bush, however, refused to use military force in the

region and to some degree, I agree with his reasoning. There are

three main reasons that kept a military reaction at bay. The first is

that no matter how small the initial action, a continued, expanded

operation was expected. Much like Viet Nam, the Bosnian conflict

offered obstacles to a quick, speedy, and painless process. The

second reason is that there were no clear objectives in the region and

no commitment to leaving. The problems that caused the conflict would

not have gone away by simply rolling a tank down main street of

Sarajevo. Finally, the third reason — politics. Had Bush committed

troops to the war in Bosnia, a wave of potentially unpopular criticism

may have took the sails out of his campaign. How would Bush have

explained to his electorate that he was responsible for sending young

American boys to their death? He couldn?t take the chance.

So, the war in Bosnia continued. The United States and other

allies toyed with the idea of airlifting food and medical supplies to

the regions cut off from direct aid coming in to Sarajevo but the

military, without clear objectives and a plan of attack, failed to

support those missions as well. Bush lost the election in 1992 and

left office. Clinton entered the situation late and because of it,

was left with Bush?s legacy of inaction. The Serbs had taken control

of over seventy percent of Bosnia (Zimmerman, 11) and had consolidated

their control of the region before Clinton could find his way to the

bathroom in the White House.

Eventually, the Clinton Administration did raise a stronger

voice but this was short lived because of the Europeans? unwillingness

to cooperate in a plan to lift the arms embargo and to hit Serb

strongholds with air strikes. After this plan failed to win popular

support in Europe, the United States continued on it?s course of

rhetoric and apathy. Why did the Clinton administration choose to

abandon such an aggressive posture? Again, the answer is political.

As Zimmerman agues in his piece, Bill Clinton could not disagree with

the Pentagon for various reasons. He had no military record and was

seen as a draft dodger to most of the brass at the Department of

Defense who had more than likely served in Viet Nam. Second, he took

on the military establishment by trying to get homosexuals into the

military. Finally, the Clinton administration?s position with all

matters of international conflict for the next two years seemed to be

rather distasteful of using the military to solve the problem.

Clinton?s approach was to negotiate a peace… not enforce it.

The Clinton administration as well as the Congress and

American press clearly identified the Serbs as the aggressors and the

Bosnians as the victims. After all, it was the Bosnian Serbs lead by

Karadzic who claimed sections of Bosnia to be Serb territory and to

withdraw Serb members of the Bosnian government and form a new

government. Additionally, it was the Serbs who began the ethnic

cleansing of the Croats and Muslims of Bosnia. The Serbs were the

ones supplying the Bosnian Serb army and the Yugoslav army which was

beating the Bosnian army into the ground. Still, the use of force was

not a serious option.

The goal of the international community, the EC. and the

United States was to solve the conflicts in the Balkans through

peaceful means yet everything that they did seemed to cause more

conflict. One plan that was do ?cantonize? the various regions in

Bosnia along ethnic lines. However, the EC insisted that whatever

plan was reached had to be put on the ballot for a referendum. The

Serbs argued that the Croats and Muslims would naturally outvote the

Serbs in favor of a unified, independent Bosnia. In February of 1992,

the EC and United States sponsored a summit in Lisbon where the

partitioning of Bosnia was agreed upon even though no lines were

actually drawn.

Alija Izetbegovic, the president of Bosnia and a Muslim,

seemed to be for the plan at the summit but once he returned home,

quickly changed his mind. Several factors contributed to this change

of heart. Izetbegovic knew that if the west did not intervene

militarily, Serbs would surely take over the country and the Muslim

population would be decimated. Furthermore, if he agreed to a

partition of Bosnia, at least a Bosnia would still exist. Bosnia

itself would have to be large enough to show up on a map or it would

most certainly be absorbed by either Croatia or by Serbia

(Yugoslavia). However, when Izetbegovic returned home to Sarajevo, he

found that there was little to no support for the plan and that it was

in his best interests to abandon it (Bennett, 236-239).

What good would a division of Bosnia do? It obviously rewards

the Serbs for being the aggressors and punishes the Bosnian Muslims

for wanting an independence that the United States and European

Community had already to recognize. Furthermore, partitioning Bosnia

would have broken up the state into microstates with little to no

cohesion. Pockets of Serbs would be living among pockets of Croats

and pockets of Muslims. What kind of country would that be? There is

no clear majority in Bosnia therefore, the government would be in a

constant state of gridlock with nothing getting accomplished because

each canton could be voting along ethnic lines.

However, Serbs had control of most of the country. While in

control, they sought to consolidate their hold on lands in eastern

Bosnia as well as a section of northwestern Bosnia where large Serb

populations lived. The also selected as their target a narrow

corridor of land that connected the two regions of Bosnia that they

controlled. Once in control, they began campaigns to rid their

targeted regions of other ethnic groups. Murder and assault were some

of the options but the Serbs also relied on rape as a means of ethnic

cleansing (Donia and Fine, 247).