Yugoslavia's Death

The conviction of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) reminds us of a brutal conflict in which atrocities were committed by all opposing participants, including the West, with a 78-day NATO air strike in which hundreds of civilians were killed.

While English playwright Harold Pinter, who won the Nobel Prize, described it: “The Action of NATO's in Serbia had nothing to do with the fate of the Kosovo Albanians, but it was another harsh and brutal statement of American power”.

Based on the majority demonstration of Serbs who have followed as long and after a conflict that has resulted in the destruction and dismantling of Yugoslavia's Federative Socialist Republic (RSFJ), you will think Serbs were the cause of conflict and the only party committed to it. Such a presentation of what stands as one of the most tragic episodes in Balkan history is offensive not only to those who suffer but also to the truth, reports “Sputnik International” Transmission Periscope.

The destruction of Yugoslavia's Federal Socialist Republic (RSFJ) was sweeping crime within which any other crime and atrocities committed in the course of the conflict must be understood. Trying to conceal this widespread crime, to focus on atrocities committed in the conflict that followed, is no coincidence. What we have to do with Western imperialism and say; as in the case of the former Yugoslavia, the West managed to exploit the nationalist and ethnic divisions that have passed through the Balkans to achieve its goal of dismantling the last socialist state in Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Under the RSFJ) constitution, nationalist and ethnic divisions were successfully reduced in favour of a joint Yugoslav identity, about which its citizens could live together and unite to create a multiethnic and multireligious state, which for decades was a social and economic beacon. In this regard he proved successful in the postwar period.

Problems to enter Yugoslavia came to the back of the debt crisis involving the country in the 1980s. Under Tito's leadership Yugoslavia had launched a highly ambitious hyperinvestment programme aimed at developing poorer regions, increasing living standards and affecting modernisation of industry and infrastructure. The programme was developed under the auspices of the workers' self-management model, which was established in the 1950s to decentralise industrial factor management, giving ordinary workers a role in running the economy and, with it, the socialist system that supported it.

However, economic autonomy offered under self-management included the ability to borrow investment loans. The 1970s debt was out of control, with the abundance of loans and free money flowing around the economy inevitably leading to hyperinflation. The result in the back of the resulting debt crisis was economic recession, in response to which the country's richest parts and rich resources began to endure the subsidy of poorer regions. We see a similar model when it comes to the economic basis of the Catalan movement of independence from Spain.

A process of increasing ethnic tensions, exploited by nationalist parties, culminated in a unilateral declaration of independence by Slovenia in 1990 on the back of a referendum that was conducted in opposition to the RSFJ constitution. Croatia undoubtedly pursued the independence of both of them by being recognised by the West, putting into service the conditions for the brutal conflict that resulted when the central government did as any sovereign government facing sceismism and would seek to impose its declaration.

Returning to Catalan independence, we are forced to take a shortcut to raise Western dual standards in recognition of the secession when it emerged in the former Yugoslavia and its refusal to recognise it in the case of Catalan by Spain recently. The worship of hypocrisy is abundant when you consider it, making up a greater evidence that when the West concerns national sovereignty, it is respected only when it comes to its allies or those countries that are strong enough to resist its breach in pursuit of broader economic strategy and hegemonic objectives. It is a custom of the Rome Empire that power is just and fair the same thing that lies at the root of international order in our time, despite high and stalwart statements that are pedaled hard by Washington and its allies when it comes to democracy and human rights.

Professor of Political Sciences Susan L. Woodward has aptly said: “in recognition of Slovenian and Croatian independence, the European Community [the predecessor of the EU] was not only the creation of new states, but also the distribution of an existing Yugoslavia”.

During World War II, Hitler's hatred of Serbs was overcome only by his hatred of Jews. British historian Anthony Beevor finds that during the war the fascist dictator “tried to avenge the Serb population [on his anti-Nazi stand]. Yugoslavia had to be destroyed, at odds of territory given to Hungarians, Bulgarians, Italians and Croats, under a fascist government, became Italian protectorates while Germany invaded Serbia. ”

The irony is that although Hitler may have failed in his intention to destroy Yugoslavia, the West succeeded in the same goal five decades later. /Periscopi/

Subtitle by: Periscope