Re: NATO, Kosovo, Russia

This is true, and of course the Croats (collectivvely, though of course not
individually) assisted Nazi genocide in WW2.  But then was then and now is
now -- the Kosovars need help.


-----Original Message-----
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3@panix.com>
To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Date: 25 March 1999 17:24
Subject: Re: NATO, Kosovo, Russia



>
>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)
>