"The Destruction of Yugoslavia" by Branka Magas--Part One

Part One: The Kosovo Watershed and its Aftermath (1981-87)

In the short introduction to this section, Magas notes that, with the imposition of martial law on Kosovo in April 1981, "it was clear that the country as a whole had reached a watershed." A member of the Yugoslav Federation was being treated as a hostile, occupied territory, and security forces were firing on demonstrators, the majority of whom were teenagers. She also notes that there was virtually no public protest from the Yugoslav public, even from the editors of the highly-regarded journal, Praxis. Her shame drove her to investigate the situation; her ignorance of Albanian history drove her to research.

Her initial reporting in Kosovo recognized that socio-economic factors, not inherent fascist tendencies as so many Left-revisionists have maintained, were the driving factors behind the rise of Albanian nationalism in Kosovo. She also recognized that Kosovar Albanians, and the left-wing Yugoslav students who for a time supported their cause, were fighting not to destroy Yugoslavia but to establish Republic status for Kosovo.

When she had completed her research on Albanian history, the result was the lengthy 1983 article "Kosovo between Yugoslavia and Albania." This article artfully summarizes the situation for readers unaware of the historical background, Yugoslav constitutional and political structures, and then-current demographic realities, much of which would be very familiar to readers of this blog. However, Magas comes from a Leftist tradition, and she examines events and institutions through that framework.

She notes that Albanians found it necessary to subjugate all other national considerations in the interests of unity in the early days of national development, in light of expansionist pressures from Serbia and Montenegro. Therefore, Albanian nationalism developed a high degree of unity, but at the cost of delaying all other social developments. The 'internal class struggle' was stunted at this early stage of national development.

Also, while most Western observers recognize that the rebirth of Yugoslavia as a federal republic of nations was the creation of Tito and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (later renamed the League of Communists), it is rarely explained that each individual nation was specifically vested in the new socialist federation by virtue of participation in the revolution and the resistance.

Furthermore, she argues that the failure of the Balkan Socialist Federation, which would have united Yugoslavia with Albania and possibly Bulgaria, was a crucial development in creating the later crisis, by delaying a proper resolution of the status of Kosovo and Yugoslavia's Albanian minority for several years, and finally allowing the province to be subsumed into Serbia, and for the Albanian nationality to acquire what seems to have been second-class status among the nations of Yugoslavia. Other minorities, of course, had a similar status, but the fact that half of the Albanian population was in Yugoslavia made this situation rather different than that of, say, the tiny Bulgarian minority in far eastern Serbia. In short, Tito and the Party leadership kept waiting for the creation of the Balkan Socialist Federation to resolve a number of national and demographic issues, so that no deliberate strategy was instated at the outset of the new political order.

Finally, Magas recognized even then that the "nationalism" which was already infecting Yugoslavia's politics was in large part a creation of decentralization--the bureaucratic elites of the individual republics found that appeals to their respective national majorities were effective tools to mobilize support and deflect criticism. Yet, the future would show that centralization was a devil's bargain, since any attempt to revive the Federal center would in practice strengthen the Serb republic government, which under Milosevic would use "centralization" as a cover for Greater Serb expansionism.

Her fears that the Yugoslav Left opposition were not going to side with the cause of Kosovo turned out, of course, to be well-founded, but while she was perceptive to recognize the danger that the Kosovo situation posed for the future democratization and even survival of the country, it would take some time for the failure of the Left in Yugoslavia to overcome, or even recognize, the dangers of nationalism and centralism to become obvious.

Ultimately, of course, many of the prominent editors of the once-proud Praxis would ultimately disgrace themselves by signing on to an anti-Albanian petition in 1986, as part of the same campaign which produced the infamous "memorandum" from Serb Academy of Arts and Sciences of that same year. In the final article, "Nationalism Captures the Serbian Intelligentsia", she reproduces the anti-Albanian petition mentioned above, and then follows with her September 1986 article "The End of an Era" in which she decries the signing of that petition by three former editors of Praxis, and explains in plain language why the claims of this petition are ridiculous and its demands outrageous and dangerous.

Those three--Zaga Golubovic, Mihailo Markovic, and Ljubomir Tadic--responded directly to her article in a letter to the "Editorial Collective" of Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, which had published her article. Their response was lengthy and maintains a tone of exasperated faux-'reasonableness' which would be familiar to readers of Diana Johnstone. And Magas then includes her reply, which is factual, systematic, comprehensive, and devastating. Considering that no small fraction of this blog has been devoted to similar work, I can only admire the completeness and clarity of her deconstruction of such dissembling.

Her concluding paragraph is worth quoting:

"Thus what above all moved me to write 'The End of an Era' was a real concern that, if such well-known socialists as Zaga Golubovic, Mihailo Markovic, and Ljubomir Tadic were to join the nationalist cause, all hope of seeing the emergence of a genuinely democratic alternative to the present quagmire of bureaucratic and nationalist discord would be set back."

We can only wish, too late, that more on the Left had been listening at the time.

UN Mission in Kosova Muzzles Woman's Right Advocate

As if we didn't need another reason to condemn the United Nation's ill-advised attempt to appease Serb extremist sentiment by violating Kosova's sovereignty, the UN is now taking it upon itself to dictate the limits of participation in civil society.

Please read the link at Advocacy Project.

Once again, the UN manages to screw things up in the former Yugoslavia. These people seem positively addicted to partition and capitulation.

Hopeful Signs

By now, most of you are already aware that indeed CNN appears to have used footage of a riot in Budapest in its 'coverage' of the evidently none-too-impressive protests over Karadzic's extradition.

No doubt the nationalists, the revisionists, and the apologists see this as yet more proof of a grand conspiracy against the Serbian people; while it no makes such people feel important to imagine that Serbia is the focus of so much effort and energy on the part of a monolithic Western cabal, the real question over here is whether this was an honest mistake by some CNN staffer who simply cannot distinguish one small Balkan and near-Balkan country from another, or whether this is another example of the mass media doctoring the news to make it "sexier".

At any rate, far from being "proof" of an ongoing anti-Serb movement, there is actually a very different, and much more hopeful, lesson to be drawn from this. From the Southest Europe Times come this collection of blog and forum posts from Serbia:
Karadzic's trial: a new chapter for Serbia?

It should be noted that some apologists and revisionists actually used those riots as proof of Serbian determination to resist cooperation with the tribunal, and of ongoing Serbian hostility to what is frequently portrayed as Western aggression. Yet, now those same people will no doubt be claiming that the CNN deception is proof that Serbs are being demonized. Meanwhile, the tempest in a teapot that the Radicals pathetically tried to stir up is another illustration that more and more Serbs are ready and eager to move on from the dead-end politics of the 1980s and 1990s.

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Sarah from the wonderful Cafe Turco has a comrade and frequent collaborator from Serbia, Jelena Markovic, whose blog Invisible Sights is absolutely worth your time. As my final parting thoughts before I really leave for vacation, I encourage all of you to check out her site as well. I will be adding it to my blogroll.

Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Eastern America website

My recent post On "Islamophobia" prompted a brief but interesting exchange of comments on the issue of criticism of religion and belief.

In light of that hardly-resolved issue, it is worth examining the website of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Eastern America to see what sort of information, viewpoints, and materials this particular American-based, tax-exempt organization is making available.

Well, in the "Archived News" section, there is a story dated July 10 on the "St. Elijah 31st Annual Summer Day Camp". And what is the theme for this years' camp? Why, "KOSOVO IS SERBIA" of course! Here is the synopsis of the events that week:

Each day began with morning prayers, followed by a history lesson on an era of Kosovo’s history:

Monday: Land of faith and tradition: Why Kosovo is important to us

Tuesday: 1389 ~ The Battle of Kosovo

Wednesday: Turkish Occupation, Independent Serbia, and Yugoslavia

Thursday: Yugoslavia breaks up, NATO bombs, the UN takes over

Friday: The Battle of Kosovo movie

In order to enhance each lesson, special activities were planned. The older campers rehearsed and performed a play The Battle of Kosovo (thanks to St. Luke in Washington, D.C. for providing the script and costumes). Mim Bizic shared her personal experiences in Kosovo and presented each camper with several gifts that helped to truly demonstrate the spirit of Kosovo. And of course, the camp t-shirts had the Maiden of Kosovo on them. We even incorporated the Kosovo theme into our “Serbian Survivor” game. Our teams were named for famous Serbian Orthodox monasteries or churches in Kosovo, each with a flag designed and made by the team to show a little of that church’s history and importance. The knowledge challenge questions were all about Kosovo, as we attempted to tie the daily lessons into a practical use – winning a prize!

No word on which kids got stuck playing the Turks. Or whether anyone bothered dressing up as any of the non-Serbs who fought on the Christian side; I'm quite certain that this recreation was scrupulous in its historical accuracy and even-handed presentation of events.

I have to say, in some ways I'm a little jealous--I was raised in a religious home, and I went to both Bible school and Church camp every summer, but not once were we allowed--encouraged, even!--to dress up in military costumes and play army! I wonder how much time these kids spent singing "Kumbaya"?

If sending your kids to a week of fetishistic indoctrination isn't quite enough, the Diocese although has a wealth of books available through the online Bookstore, where the interested and the devout can find such titles as The Orthodox Study Bible
, The Eastern Fathers of the Fourth Century, Introduction to the Serbian Orthodox Church History
, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, and Patristic Theology. Oh, and if reading church history and works of theology gets a little dull, you can always spice it up with titles like Media Lies and the Conquest of Kosovo, Media Cleansing. Dirty Reporting. Journalism and Tragedy in Yugoslavia (by well-known Srebrenica-denier Peter Brock), and my personal favorite, Ratko Mladic--Tragic Hero, the long-awaited English-language biography by Milo Yelesiyevich.

I have said this about Islamists who sanction murder in the name of jihad, I have said it about creationists who want to stifle the teaching of science in public schools, and I'll say it about these sanctimonious, myth-peddling blowhards--believe what you will, but don't expect the slightest bit of deference or respect for your "beliefs" if they don't hold up to rational inquiry or moral scrutiny.

"The Nationalist Serbian Intellectuals and Islam: Defining and Eliminating a Muslim Community" by Norman Cigar

One of the two essays from the book The New Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy that explicitly addresses the plight of the Bosniak Muslims. Cigar is also the author of the essential work Genocide in Bosnia: The Policy of Ethnic Cleansing and comes to the subject with a wealth of knowledge and a clear perspective.

The gist of Cigar's essay is most likely familiar to most readers of this blog, as the influence of Serbian intellectuals and writers like Cosic, Draskovic, Karadzic, Raskovic, Plavsic, and many others is well-known to even a casual student of the last Balkan wars. Here (in line with the theme of the book), Cigar focuses on the demonization of Islam and ethnic Muslims by Serb nationalists; the opening sentences of his essay:

"Recent events in Bosnia-Herzegovina provide significant material for a case study on the impact that external images of Islam can have on Muslims as a community and as individuals. Perhaps there was no more striking aspect in this process of creating images than the role that Serb intellectuals played as they exercised their craft of developing and disseminating knowledge and engaged in political activity."

Cigar goes on to show that Serb nationalist intellectuals were consistent in creating an "in-group/out-group" mentality regarding the Serbs versus the "others." What is of note in the context of this book is how Serbs tried to play to outside (particularly Western) sensibilities by playing off stereotypes about and fears of Muslims and Islam. What is also striking is how ridiculously crude and irrational much of this "intellectual" rhetoric was. Consider this quote from writer Dragos Kalajic, speaking of the allegedly "unmanly" nature of the (allegedly "Serb") converts to Islam after the Ottoman conquest:

"..it is appropriate to point out that effeminacy and symbolic or actual homosexuality are not the only means by which to escape from a manly nature that is threatened with violence, terror, or death. The Serbian experience shows that there are many other ways of avoiding duty and responsibility stemming from too onerous a fate, which history has imposed on the Serbs. Historically, the first and easiest path of avoidance from unavoidable fate was actually opened up by the Ottoman occupation...[and] drove many Serbs along the road to treachery"

This is, of course, a load of nonsense, but it's the sort of nonsense that people like Diana Johnstone and Julia Gorin take very seriously. To say nothing of the quote from Radovan Karadzic wherein he tries to distinguish which Muslims could still be converted to Orthodoxy--apparently, religious conversion is a matter of genetics:

"When it is a question of the Serbs of the Islamic faith, there was always a great divide that determined whether they were to be more Muslim or more Serb. Those in whom the religious element predominated, and orientation toward Islam's fundamentals, were lost forever to the Serbian nation."

It goes on, but even that short quote is enough to make the obvious parallels to the Nazi efforts to determine which people in the occupied East had sufficiently "Aryan" characteristics; Cigar rightly notes that in this day and age nationalist extremists know better than to express their beliefs in explicitly racist terms, but there is really no other way to interpret Karadzic's gibberish about collective memories and achieving "that level of development to become Serbs while also having the Islamic past of their families." These are the words of a man described with no little warmth by the 39th President of the United States as I noted last fall.

Cigar's analysis is keen, but it is difficult to do this essay full credit without all the quotes he includes; the above passages are typical, but hardly exhaust the range of crackpot theorizing, pseudo-science, mytho-romantic pontificating, and sheer psychopathic lunacy on display here. Cigar convincingly demonstrates that among Serbia's intellectual elite there was a strong tendency to portray Islam as a corrosive, and thoroughly evil force which fully defines all followers of that faith; Muslims are at all places and all times defined primarily if not exclusively as members of a vicious, violent, and implacably anti-Western (and anti-Serb) movement. No wonder Samuel Huntington was so popular among them.