Югославският случай : Етнически конфликти в Югоизточна Европа

Abstract

For almost five decades, Europe’s two-pole division used to define the specific nature of conflicts as global, ideological, nuclear. In the two-dimensional configuration of the time of ideologies, inter-ethnic disagreements used to be suppressed and subordinated to the global confrontation. The new time, the new world order are ‘liberating the spirit’ of ethnoses and are marked by a strong drive for self-determination. In the beginning, there was the unification of Germany, then followed the dissolution of multinational federations. The division is going on within the new states as well. The strive for social community has ethnic and confessional identity as its basic criterion.
Disintegration processes are especially strong in Central and Eastern Europe. The priority motivation of the dynamic transition in the former communist countries is the desire to compensate for the historical chances for independent development that have been lost during decades. This ambition complicates the patchwork of nationalities that is being rearranged by changing borders and homogenizing the ethnic composition. History, religion, folklore, language are a means of self-assertion. They are mobilized by the feeling of insecurity and by the idea that a nation ‘does not appear by itself’.
In the south-eastern part of the continent, the historical development and the excessive emotional charge of the modern urge to self-determination orient the choice towards power politics. it is the means by which a solution is being sought for the ethnic problems after the collapse of the multinational Yugoslav federation. The division of the territory and the formation of national states on the basis of former Yugoslav republics is being done through a military conflict which has taken too long, accompanied by destruction and many lost lives. The geographical names of the emphasis change but the conflict continues: after Slovenia and Croatia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, then in Kossovo, probably soon to be in Macedonia and all the time in Serbia. It is hard to create the formula for compromise, not to speak of a stable solution for the diverging interests of the different ethnoses.
The study of the specific dimensions of destructive processes allows one to view the Yugoslav crisis as an extreme manifestation of the emancipation of nationality, which is characteristic of the collapse of totalitarianism and the transition towards a new political system. As a result of the changes in the late 1980s, it has become impossible to conceal the national contradictions that have been accumulated for decades. There is a shift of the value orientation towards national ideas at the expense of the all-European criteria synthesized in the concept of democratism. The dominating idea in former Yugoslavia is not the apology of the democratic process but the defence and development of the national interest.
The context of interpretation of the conditions that predetermine ethnic conflicts in the case of Yugoslavia is directed towards revealing their universality. In order to represent its nature, the problematic is centred in three conflict zones - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kossovo, and Macedonia. Ethnic conflict in each of them has specific dimensions but they share common roots and similar results. Their analysis is organized on a problem basis with several standing points such as the revival of national identity, the legalization of group rights, the strive for ethnic homogeneity and the radicalization of nationalism. The peculiarities in the three conflictogeneous areas is used to substantiate the conception of the general regularities valid on the wider regional scale.
The new risks do not presuppose the existence of a collective threat to most of the European continent. Ethnic conflicts are localized and their destructive potential affects most of all the immediate participants and the neighbouring countries. However, the war is unacceptable, with its numerous victims and destruction in the middle of Europe - a war lead under the pressure of emotions and radical nationalism. It is unleashed and growing in a time when, outside the territory of Yugoslavia, the ambition dominates for the establishing of a new world order, for more security and for taking advantage of the opportunities for social prosperity. The Yugoslav conflicts build up the counterpoint of united Europe and aggravate the isolation of its south-eastern part. These dimensions motivate the active position of international organizations and their efforts towards the settlement of the crisis. The international security organizations try out diverse approaches for influencing it. Conferences have been organized within the European Union - the Hague (1991), London (1992), Geneva (1993); consultations have been carried out in the OSCE, resolutions of the UNO Security Council have been adopted on declaring defence zones in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on introducing an arms embargo and economical ban against the federal republic of Yugoslavia; for the first time in Macedonia, preventive diplomacy has been applied which is being implemented successfully through dislocating international military forces under the aegis of UNO; the Atlantic Union is taking commitment to direct military operations in the settlement of the crisis. The conflict in the collapsing federation comes out to be a kind of laboratory for developing and testing different approaches for the settlement of crises arising after the end of the Cold War. Most generally, the problem goes down to the right of interference with the internal affairs of sovereign countries on humanitarian grounds and with the purpose of urgent defence of human rights.
Through tracing the numerous initiatives for influencing the ethnic conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kossovo and Macedonia, the attitude and the politics of the leading countries is being elucidated in each considered case. The emphasis, however, is put on what surpasses the outlined geographical dimensions, that is, the development of a common position and the application of different means for the settlement of ethnic confrontation. The complexity of this process is clarified as well as the difficulties it faces in its development because the efficacy of approaches is being tested ‘in operation’. The case of Yugoslavia is the specific occasion that uncovers the need of reaching a higher degree of coherence in the politics of international forces. Through the involvement in it, the ‘modern’ essence of the world organizations and the parameters of their participation and contribution.
The specific nature of ethnic conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kossovo and Macedonia is elucidated more clearly in the description of their essence and development after the signing of the Dayton Treaty. The signed agreement for interrupting military action is being viewed only as the beginning of the peace process in former Yugoslavia. In its development, it faces difficulties of diverse kinds. The strive has been preserved towards splitting the territory and homogenizing the population on national criteria. The nationalistic desires for building new states through