Re: NATO, Kosovo, Russia

At 03:36 PM 3/25/99 -0000, Mike Procter wrote:
>I seem to remember that Stalin had an agreement with Hitler, too.  But this
>is secondary to my main point, which is that Milosevic is bent on genocide.
>Presumably present reluctance on the part of Russia to do anything about him
>would be hard to analyse in class terms.

Although I think this word is inappropriate, I would say that Tudjman of
Croatia was at least as "genocidal" toward the Serbs as Milosevic has been
to non-Serb populations. Meanwhile NATO shows no interest in teaching the
Croats lessons.

===============

NY Times, March 3, 1999

Croatia Branded as Another Balkans Pariah

By RAYMOND BONNER

ZAGREB, Croatia -- Serbia and the Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic,
are generally considered the pariahs in the Balkans, but according to an
international report, the verdict on Croatia and its president, Franjo
Tudjman, is equally harsh. 

"There has been no progress in improving respect for human rights, the
rights of minorities and the rule of law" in Croatia, the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe said in the recent report, which has not
been made public. 

Beyond that summary, the report, which is astonishing for its lack of
diplomatic circumlocution, is filled with damning details -- about
repression of the media by the Croatian government; about its lack of
cooperation with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague,
Netherlands; and, above all, about the government's harsh treatment of
ethnic Serbs. 

Only a small percentage of the approximately 300,000 ethnic Serbs forced to
flee their homes here during the war have been allowed to return. Most fled
when the Croatian army carried out its own "ethnic cleansing" during
military operations against Serbian-controlled areas in August 1995. 

"It is harsh, but it is not an exaggeration," Andreas Stadler, the deputy
Austrian ambassador here, said about the report, which was delivered in
late January to the 54 member countries of the organization. The
organization, which includes the United States, is charged with overseeing
the development of democracy in former communist countries. 

Tudjman has been elected twice, most recently in 1997, but the State
Department, in a human rights report made public last week, described
Croatia as "nominally democratic" but "in reality authoritarian." 

Still, Stadler and other Western diplomats said, the European Union and the
United States, which is the most powerful outside influence here, must
temper their criticism of Tudjman, in part for strategic reasons: His
cooperation is vital to the NATO-led peacekeeping operations in neighboring
Bosnia. Currently, for example, Apache helicopters for use in Bosnia are
being unloaded from an American ship and assembled on the Croatian island
of Krk. 

There are also concerns that criticizing the country too harshly will give
ammunition to the hard-liners in the ruling party, the Croatian Democratic
Union, who are in a fight with moderates over who will succeed Tudjman, 76,
as party leader. He has incurable stomach cancer, and his condition has
worsened in the last two weeks, diplomats here said Tuesday. 

The delicate diplomatic quandary was reflected in the visit here by
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright last August. In her meetings with
Tudjman, Albright delivered a tough message about the need for Croatia to
become more democratic, to comply with the Dayton accords, which ended the
fighting in Bosnia, and to allow for the return of the Serbian refugees --
all matters on which the Clinton administration and Tudjman have
fundamentally different views. 

But after returning to Washington, Albright sent Tudjman a letter, which so
pleased the Croatian leader that it was promptly leaked. A newspaper in the
coastal town of Split described it as having the "taste of apology." 

Albright wrote that while she was aware that her visit had been difficult,
"I want to see you as a part of Europe where you belong." Becoming part of
Europe is a primary goal for Tudjman, who bristles when his country is
referred to as Balkan, but it is a goal that will not become a reality
unless Croatia becomes far more democratic, European diplomats have told
him repeatedly. 

The report by the European security organization did not address the
economic situation of the country, but that too is, in a word, miserable.
While a few at the top, political allies of Tudjman and members of the
ruling party, have acquired fabulous wealth -- which they flaunt with
flashy cars and expensive clothes -- the middle class is quickly being
squeezed into poverty. 

It requires $1,000 a month just to buy the minimum amount of food for a
family of four, said a woman in her mid-30s; but the average monthly wage
is about $400. Milk in neighboring Slovenia, which, like Croatia, was once
part of the former Yugoslavia, costs the equivalent of about 60 cents a
liter, while here it is more than $2, a Croatian woman said Tuesday on
returning from Slovenia. She also bought cans of dog food there for
one-third what they would cost here, she said. 

The cause of the country's economic woes is quite simple: bad government,
or as one diplomat put it, "corruption, nepotism and mismanagement." 

On the political score, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe says that under pressure from the United States and the European
Union, the Croatian government has made commitments to freedom of the
press. But Croatian Television, the main source of news for up to 90
percent of Croatians, "remains subject to political control by the ruling
party," the report says. 

Croatian Television programs are marked by "hate speech," the report says,
and news about the political opposition, Bosnia and the international
tribunal is "misleadingly presented, distorted by selection and by
prejudicial terminology or comment." 

The Croatian foreign ministry declined to comment on the report. 

On the international war crimes tribunal, the report says the Croatian
government has embarked on a campaign to "encourage distrust and hostility"
toward it among the Croatian populace. 

Tudjman, who diplomats say is convinced he will be indicted by the
tribunal, has declared that the tribunal has no jurisdiction over anything
that happened during the operations carried out by the army when it
regained control, in 1995, of territories in the hands of Serbian
separatists. 

During those operations, Serbian civilians were killed, villages were
burned to the ground and several hundred thousand Serbs were forced to flee. 

The government has given repeated assurances to the United States and the
European Union that the refugees will be allowed to return. But it is
unlikely that they will. 

"We have resolved the Serbian question," Tudjman declared, referring to the
1995 military actions in a speech to his generals at the opening of a war
college in December. Then he added, "There will never be 12 percent of
Serbs" in Croatia, as there was before the war. 

Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company  

Louis Proyect

(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)