AS THE AIRCRAFT carrier Ark Royal heads ex-Yugoslavia, the beginnings of a major imperialist intervention are now in place. While intervention so far has been very limited, enormous apparatus, including a NATO command and control Yugoslavia and on board allied centre, has been established in warships off the coast.
This operation is not to defend Bosnia against the Serbian attacks, or to liberate the 70,000 people held in secret camps, or to end the systematic rapes being carried out by the Serbian torces of Karadzic and Milosevic. It is to impose the newly-brokered 'peace' agree. ment between the UN, in the form of David Owen and Cyrus Vance, and the Serbian leadership.
As the self-styled Bosnian Serb parlament' debated the issue, they did so in the sure knowledge that ment gives them everything they want. "Peace coming as the dismemberment of Bosnia, its cantonisation into which is precisely what Karadzic and Milosevic wanted all along. Now, tragically, it seems as if the Bosnian government of Izebegevic is reparing to go along with thi he operation being carried out b the imperialist powers gives the lie to explanations which see the West as op osed to Milosevic's plan for a Greater erbia, or determined to bring him Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic Milosevie has caused instability towards in the region, which has brought him into bad odour with the West. But in order now to re-stabilise the Balkans for imperialism, the West regards Greater Serbia, and the an regime in Belgrade, as the comerstone of future order and stability. They may not like Milosevic, but they will do business with him.
Doing Dusiness with him nov oreaking up what the wi meatators are doms. at the behest of imperialism, is criminal.
Multi-ethnic
Bosnia has existed since the second world war as a multi-ethnic province, in which, apart from the Croatian region along the coast, no part of its territory has been clearly ominated by one ethnic groid the agreetowns, villages and even families And until the Great Serb onslaught by Milosevic, there was no hint of a national question within Bosnia, or of any substantial ethnic conflicts there either.
The defence of Bosnia was in its origins multi-ethnic. But the possibility of a united defence of the province was sabotaged by the actions of the right-wing regime in Zagreb, who used the Serbian Croatian enclave. This in turn has oo ened a political space for Islamic politi.
clans, flected growing Muslims Croats. grity the bolical forces.
and attack to establish a and is re right-wing Despite tensions fighters between The position of socialists should be for the defence of the unity and inte detention camps Croatia, now with sanction of world imperialism, very grim. to carve it up.
Positions that talk about being neutralist or pacifist, or merely denounce 'all nationalisms' fail to grasp the real The crisis in ex-Yugoslavia stems from the decision of the corrupt right-wing regime perialism of ex-Stalinist bureaucrats in Belgrade to use Great Serb nationalism to shore cisely that the up their rule.
By unleashing the Yugoslav army 81408668 against Croatia and Slovenia, they en- majority of its people.
Most likely sured the slide into a bloody and diawar. which the only galners are right-wing where the ultra-nationalist political base. If 'peace' Attempts by sections of the Western The left must support self-determination for Slovenia, Bosnia and Croatia left to suggest that the only right-wing forces involved are the nationalists and Ustache Croatian forces are bizarre. The Serbian fighters who control a part of Sarajevo are fascists. Milosevic's regime, far from being some sort of ves. tigial socialist outfit, is in fact ultra the reluctance of rape victims to talk, particularly those who fear the stigma of being a raped woman in Muslim communities, all the evidence is that rape has become a systematic weapon of terror used by the Serb Chetnik forces. Thousands, probably tens of thousands, of women have been raped Rape is used systematically in the According to the Red Cross there are perhaps 70,000 people in detention camps whose existence has not been offi. cially notified to the UN. The fate of men and women in these camps must be supported "Too delicate"
The use of rape in this way, on such a scale, is probably unparalleled since world war. It is a major crime against women and against humanity. And the fact that David Owen, speaking for the West, finds it too delicate' to even raise in his last talks with Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic, speaks eloquently about the priorities of imThe new situation which enables the For regotiation of a peace agreement is pre Serb forces have won most of their objectives. A major imperialist intervention now would be about the decapitation of Bosnia, gainst the will of the overwhelmins Kosovo.
the main military con- kans. flicts would be between imperialist forces and the Bosnian resistance.
The Milosevic regime has strung out the fighting in Bosnia, beyond the point Serb forces have achieved their objectives, to firm up its domestic at the price of decapitating Bosnia, Milosevic tionary party lingers on in various has a new agenda, which is to turn his attention to the ethnic Albanian population is Kosovo, which after all was the scene of his first wave of Great Serb mobilisation in 1988-9.
Socialist federation
The solution to the crisis in ex-Yugoslavia is not imperialist intervention, but the fight for à socialist federation of the Balkans. But such a federation is a medium or long-term objective. Here and now it must pass through the stage of the self-determination and independence of the various nations, and nations in formation, in the region.
Socialists must defend the inde pendence of Croatia, Slovenia and Bos. nia, but also the rights of national minorities within these nations.
The right of self-determination of Kosovo, and unity with Albania if that is what the population want, must also be And they should, besides opposing imperialist intervention, demand an ending of the arms embargo, which has only prevented the Bosnian resistance from obtaining the necessary weaponry for self defense.
Key demands in this situation are:• No to imperialist intervention in the Balkans; the arms not UN troops! • No carve up of Bosnia - support the Bosnian resistance.
an international campaign against the use of rape, for a war crimes ribunal to bring the torturers, rapists • No to Greater Serbia, for the self-determination of Bosnia, Croatia and • For a socialist federation of the Bal"Milosevic's regime, far from being some sort of vestigial socialist outfit, is in fact ultra right-wing"
No. 36 January 30, 1993 Page 7 are many vida.
People in Sarajevo insist on the necessity to talk about the truth and existence ora Basmian