Yugoslavian history
This is in response to Gwynne Dyer's article Will the Serbs and Kosovars ever live side by side again? (June 10, 1999).
Like the case is with many western journalists, Mr. Dyer's viewpoint is characterized by authors' shortsighted perception of history. To them, history is a science that provides data on an "as necessary" basis.
In the case of civil wars in ex-Yugoslavia (Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) this "historical view" spans the last 10 years or even less: The problems started 10 years ago with Mr. Milosevic coming into power in Serbia. Everybody else in Yugoslavia, Mr. Dyer claims, was so terrified by this event, that they decided to secede from Yugoslavia. But Serbs all across this country wanted to establish Greater Serbia on ruins of ex- Yugoslavia and that is how the wars started.
Serbs as aggressors and everybody else as victims of their aggression everywhere in ex-Yugoslavia. In Kosovo, this "history" is even shorter; it started in March 1998 (when peaceful Albanians abandoned 10 years of Gandhi-like resistance and boycotting of all Yugoslav institutions and switched to armed rebellion to reach their goal -- independence for Kosovo), or even January 1999 (after Serbian Police withdrew from Kosovo in accordance with an agreement reached with Western powers in November 1998, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a terrorist group financed by drug trafficking, took over abandoned police positions.
In January 1999, police made an effort to reestablish government control it lost on almost two-thirds of Kosovo. Forty-four KLA members were killed in this operation and their bodies later displayed to Western journalists by KLA as "victims of a massacre". So this is the history of Yugoslavia, at least if you take it for real that history began 10 years ago and that one-sided war propaganda is history in the making. This approach satisfies both the authors and their readers. It simplifies complicated real-life versions, and what's even sweeter, makes necessary research time for the authors real short -- it only takes regular reading of newspapers and everybody is an instant historian.
This, combined with relying on "unconfirmed information" from dubious sources (but "information" that fits the existing picture and never disturbs or questions it), and we have a product that will satisfy both our editors and our readers. And most readers are satisfied; with only few real data and a simple plot they feel well informed with no effort on their side. So the readers don't question the authors' viewpoint and the authors, on the other hand, don't give the readers confusing facts and differing angles. And everybody lived happily ever after. Except the Serbs.
Despite all this talk against ethnic cleansing, there are almost no Serbs left in Croatia, but there are at least 300,000 Serbs more in Serbia. There are another 600,000 Serbs (at least), left in Jasenovac, Croatia, the biggest World War II concentration camp in South-East Europe, run by Ustashe, a Croat version of the Nazis; but this does not count -- history began only 10 years ago.
BRANIMIR SALEVIC
Jakarta