Posted by Dalmatinac on October 3, 2003, 2:33 pm, in reply to "Redrawing Bosnia's Borders (An Article)" --Previous Message--
You guys make me laugh! J.K of the Times is ONE of the few journalists who are lobbying Croatia's interests (especially from the Diaspora) on a consistent basis. Instead of forwarding his article(s) to groups who denounce Croatia and her interests, you people think he's up to something more sinister....What a joke.
: : An interesting piece given some of our recent
: discussions on BiH Croatians. I don't know
: much about Kuhner, so to say the least I was
: pretty surprised to read this...
:
: Redrawing Bosnian borders
: By Jeffrey T. Kuhner
: From 1992-1995, Bosnia was the site of
: some of the bloodiest fighting in Europe
: since the Second World War. Yet since the
: signing of the Dayton peace accords, the
: country remains divided along ethnic lines.
: Despite massive Western foreign aid and the
: presence of American peacekeeping forces,
: Bosnia's Serbs, Croats and Muslims are no
: closer to genuine reconciliation and peaceful
: co-existence. The country's Serbs who live in
: the Bosnian Serb Republic seek to eventually
: become part of Serbia. The Bosnian Croats,
: most of whom live in the country's second
: political entity, the Muslim-Croat
: federation, also would like nothing more than
: to join Croatia.
: The country's Muslims, however, remain
: wedded to the notion of a united,
: multinational Bosnia based on a strong
: centralized government in Sarajevo. The
: international community also is committed to
: keeping the country's borders intact. Yet the
: problem with that approach is that it
: overlooks the reality of what is occurring on
: the ground.
: Bosnia remains an economic basket case,
: where the unemployment rate is 40 percent.
: Foreign investment is practically
: nonexistent. Corruption and crime remain
: rampant. Despite nearly a decade of
: nation-building, Western governments have
: failed to forge viable economic and political
: institutions.
: More ominously, the greatest threat to
: peace and stability stems from the resurgence
: of Islamic fundamentalism in Bosnia, which
: seeks to either wipe out or convert all
: Christians in the region. The country now
: serves as a base for al Qaeda operatives,
: where numerous terrorist cells are active and
: plotting attacks on targets throughout
: Europe. In the past, Saudi Arabia has sent
: millions of dollars in aid to
: "humanitarian" agencies that
: encourage Bosnian Muslims to promote the
: doctrines of Wahhabism, a particularly
: intolerant and puritanical version of Islam.
: Mosques have been established throughout the
: Muslim-Croat federation, many of whom preach
: the need for "jihad" against the
: country's Catholic Croats and Orthodox
: Christian Serbs.
: The result has been numerous acts of
: terror perpetrated upon civilians
: especially the Croats. During the past
: several years, Catholic churches in and
: around Sarajevo have been vandalized by
: Islamic extremists. Cemeteries where Croats
: were buried have been desecrated. Many
: ordinary Catholics are afraid of walking on
: the streets of Sarajevo with a cross around
: their neck for fear of being attacked.
: The most notorious incident occurred on
: Christmas Eve, when three Croats a father
: and his two daughters were gunned down in
: their home by an Islamic militant near the
: town of Konjic. Their crime: celebrating
: Christmas.
: The rise of radical Islam threatens to
: destabilize the Balkans, plunging the region
: once again into bloodshed and religious
: conflict. Rather than forcing the three
: constituent peoples of Bosnia to live
: together against their wishes, the Bush
: administration would be wise to develop a
: realistic and coherent strategy toward the
: region.
: Washington needs to realize that
: synthetic states such as Bosnia-Herzegovina
: are destined to fail. Recent European history
: is littered with examples of multinational
: countries such as Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia
: and the Soviet Union that disintegrated
: because they denied the fundamental human
: aspirations for democracy and national
: self-determination. Bosnia is another case in
: point. The Bosnian Serbs should be allowed to
: form a state with Serbia; the Croat
: territories especially those centered
: around their stronghold of Mostar in Western
: Herzegovina should be incorporated into
: Croatia. The Bosnian Muslims would have their
: own state, with Sarajevo as the capital.
: More importantly, the Bush administration
: needs to foster closer ties with the Croats
: in Bosnia-Herzegovina for one simple reason:
: They are on the front-lines in the war
: against Islamic terrorism in the Balkans. The
: Bosnian Serbs, meanwhile, are unreliable
: allies. Many of them are still seething with
: resentment against the United States for its
: decision to use military force to end the
: Serbs' campaign of ethnic cleansing and mass
: murder during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
: The Croats, on the other hand, view
: Washington as their strategic partner. As one
: high-ranking Bosnian Croat government
: official told me: "We can act as the
: eyes and ears for the West in the Balkans and
: monitor the activities of al Qaeda in
: Bosnia."
: The United States should not only support
: the Bosnian Croats' right to
: self-determination, but also provide them
: with intelligence and military assistance to
: contain the growth of radical Islam in the
: region.
: It is ironic that the West should now
: have to depend upon the Croats in Herzegovina
: as a pivotal ally in the war on terrorism.
: Throughout the 1990s, the Herzegovinian
: Croats were demonized in the Western liberal
: press for their "nationalism" and
: passionate attachment to the Croatian cause.
: They have always been the most patriotic and
: courageous of all the Croats, producing some
: of Europe's finest fighters. Herzegovina was
: primarily the site where the Croats for
: centuries fought off the invading Ottoman
: armies. For their ceaseless resistance to the
: Turks, Pope Leo X referred to the Croats as
: "the ramparts of Christendom."
: The Croats in Bosnia can again take up
: their historic role as a strategic bulwark
: against Islamic expansionism on the
: Continent. However, this can only happen
: after Washington realizes Bosnia is not a
: Balkan Switzerland, but a smoldering cauldron
: of ethnic strife where the followers of Osama
: bin Laden have found a home to preach their
: message of hate and religious fanaticism. As
: an experiment in nation-building, Bosnia has
: been a noble failure. The Bush administration
: should take heed.
:
:
:
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