Byzantine Blog

Germany's Big, Empty Words

Part 3 of late President Slobodan Milosevic's opening statement at the Hague, August 31, 2004 (Part 1, Part 2)

On September 12, 1990, in Moscow, at the time foreign minister of what was then a Democratic Republic of Germany, along with French, Great Britain, Soviet and United States' foreign ministers signed an agreement about the final state order of Germany, Genscher, among else, said: "We don't want anything else, except to live in freedom, democracy and peace with all the other nations. The state unity is for us the greatest responsibility, but it does not represent the aspirations for greater power".

Chancellor Kohl, on October 3 [1990], the day of German reunification, sent a message to all the governments in the world, among them also to a Yugoslav Government, which states: "From the German soil, only the peace will emanate in future. We are aware that the inviolability of borders, the respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of all European states are the key preconditions for peace. We are also bound by the moral and legal obligations, which stem from the German history."

Big words and big promises given to the rest of humanity, particularly to Europe, at the moment German nation was finally permitted to take off the heavy burden of the division, imposed precisely as a result of the darkest era of German history. Big words and big promises, but at the same time, empty words and empty promises.

Because, how did the top German leadership view the moral and legal obligations arising from the German history which they cited, in reality, and what is their relation to the inviolability of borders, respect of territorial integrity and sovereignty of all European states, as they said themselves is the main precondition for peace, one could observe at the time very clearly on the territory of Yugoslavia — that is, on the territory of that very state onto which the German history, only in the 20th century, inflicted a cost of three million lives: 1,247,000 Serbian victims in the First World War and 1,700,000 victims in the Second World War.

Because, precisely in that October of 1990, in the month of German reunification, the Yugoslav Army Security Services have found and even managed to secretly film the activities of the illegal import of weapons to Croatia, aimed at facilitating the armed secession of Croatia. Therefore, at issue was an outright destruction of the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia.

This arms-import went through Hungary, but the bulk of the weapons came from now reunified Germany, which turned the cited promise of Chancellor Kohl that "only peace will emanate from the German soil in future", to the pure irony. The arming of secessionists was neither the only, nor the first form of German meddling in Yugoslav internal affairs, contributing to the deepening, if not the very instigation of the crisis in Yugoslavia.

Germany Promises to Croat and Slovenian Secessionists that More Bloodshed will Grant their Wishes

The entire activities of Slovenia and Croatia on violently gaining independence were not only supported and aided by Germany, they were also largely encouraged by the highest [German] state functionaries. Namely, within the efforts to stop the conflict in Croatia, and to end the attacks against the JNA (Yugoslav Army), Yugoslav Presidency and the leaders of the Yugoslav republics have gathered in Belgrade at the meeting on August 20 and 21, 1991. At that time, they have adopted a number of decisions aimed at stabilizing the situation. A programme on the minimal political and economic cooperation was adopted; a commission for drafting an agreement about the future shape of the multi-national state was formed, and also an agreement was reached regarding the meeting between the leaders of the JNA and Croat republic.

On August 20, the extraordinary ministerial session of the European Political Cooperation was held, where the foreign ministers of the European Community member states concluded they are welcoming the readiness of all parties to embark on negotiations about the future of Yugoslavia, and requested that all the sides conduct these negotiations between themselves in goodwill. On the same day, Genscher held the consultations with Slovenian and Croat foreign ministers. And on August 24, 1991, he invited Boris Frlec, a Yugoslav Ambassador to Bonn, a Slovenian by the way, which ensured that the message sent to Yugoslav authorities will also be carried to Ljubljana and Zagreb, and told him: "In case the bloodshed continues, and in the case the policy of violence does not end immediately, the [German] Federal Government will have to seriously consider recognizing Slovenia and Croatia in the existing borders. It will also conduct the appropriate review on these matters within the European Community."

The question is whether those who have already declared secession and who have already used weapons in order to carry it out, needed a better and greater endorsement and encouragement, whether the greater push could have been given in order to violate the cease-fire, than this message, that precisely the continuation of the bloodshed will produce the recognition of those states. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened. The message has produced the desired effect, because the Croat paramilitary formations refused to honor the already agreed cease-fire and escalated the conflict.

Finally, Lord [David] Owen also spoke about the German readiness to support Slovenia and Croatia in their unlawful secession also through the recognition of those republics, even at the cost of serious clashes with their [German own] European Community partners, USA and the United Nations. You have admitted into evidence his book here and I'm reminding you, he said: "Genscher's letter to Perez de Cuellar, written in German, invoked the public statements which have been raising tensions in Yugoslavia and the Paris Charter. But, as Perez de Cuellar reminded him in his reply, Genscher has forgotten to mention a European Community declaration published in Rome on November 8, 1991, which said that the prospects for the recognition of independence of those republics who wished so can only be reviewed within the frameworks of the overall solutions."

Diplomats: Germany Bears the Greatest Responsibility for the Bloodshed in Former Yugoslavia

Still, the German position was finally prevailing. Once the Pandora's box was opened, once the unlawful secession was recognized at the cost of human lives, the blood-soaked process was difficult to stop, because the things were not ended with Croatia and Slovenia, again without any consideration for the consequences. A further step was made.

At the end of the first passage, on the page 384 of his book, Lord Owen says: "The European Community's mistake regarding the recognition of Croatia could have been overcome had the situation not been further complicated by the recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina, irrespective of the consequences. United States which, in December 1991, were against the recognition of Croatia, in the spring of 1992 became a very active advocate of recognizing Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, there was no need to regard it as unavoidable, nor was it logical to move on decisively and recognize Bosnia and Herzegovina, an inner Yugoslav republic which consisted of three large constitutive nations, with very different views on independence."

So, one mistake followed the other. One brazenness followed the other, and human lives were the price. And when human lives are the price, than those mistakes and those brazennesses turn into the crime. In this case, that is the crime against peace. Precisely the type of crime that this illegal institution, probably not by chance, does not have the jurisdiction over.

That Germany is the main guilty party for the escalation of the Yugoslav crisis was also stressed by the US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, in the interview to US Today, also carried by Die Welt, from June 18, 1993. Christopher said: "During the overall process of recognition and, first of all, on the occasion of the premature recognitions, grave mistakes were made, and particular responsibility for that belongs to the Germans. Many experts share the view that the problems we are facing today stem from the recognition of Croatia, and later Bosnia."

Christopher's French colleague Roland Dumas, in the statement carried by Süddeutsche Zeitung on June 21, 1993, criticized the European Community because of recognizing Slovenia and Croatia in, quote, a "hasty and precipitous manner", which paved the way to breaking up Yugoslavia. He emphasized, quote: "The responsibility of Germany and the Vatican for the escalation is clearly enormous".

Another participant in these events, the then-Dutch Premier Ruud Lubbers, spoke in 1997 about the fact that German Chancellor Kohl pressured the European Community and thus changed its position that Croatia's independence ought not be recognized in order to avoid further fanning of the civil war, and said, I quote: "Foreign Affairs Minister [Hans] Van den Broek and I might as well have turned on our heads. The other Europeans could do nothing but look around in astonishment. Germans have moved into this business on their own and that was a catastrophe." This is [Amsterdam] Volkstrant, quoted according to the DPA, on December 21, 1997.

When all the above described German support to Croat and Slovenian, but also to the other secessionists aiming to realize their plan, is taken into account, then those statements by Sjepan Mesic from the TV appearance regarding the role of Genscher and Pope John Paul II are not surprising.

A Constant in German Foreign Policy in Three Wars: Anti-Serbian Drive

However, as the Germany's bully-like support for destruction of Yugoslavia and for recognition of the secession of its republics is something evident and widely known, the question remains in the minds of many what were the motives of such behavior and such stubborn persistence of the top leaders of just-reunited German nation.

This question is answered by one of the world's leading geopolitical experts, General Pierre-Marie Gallois who was a close De Gaulle's associate, who stated the following for Die Zeit on July 23, 1993: "Dismemberment of this state and closely tying Croats and Slovenians to the German industry has brought about the emancipation of the nations which were once associated with the empire in the heart of Europe, and afterwards with the Third Reich. On the other hand, this meant punishment of the Serbs who have persistently, in both world wars, stood by the Allies. Thirdly, this has led to the wiping of the last remnants of the treaties with which Germany was twice punished for its defeats."

And although many would regard these claims by the old French general and the prominent anti-fascist with suspicion and displeasure, trusting that Germany's historical ambitions are nothing but a distant past and that the new historical circumstances and the catharsis German nation went through are a sufficient guarantee for the peace-loving insurances given by the German politicians at the time these events took place, on the occasion of German reunification, one only needs to recall an article by Klaus Kinkel, titled "German Foreign Policy in the Light of the New World Order", published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on March 19, 1993. In this article, the task of German foreign policy is expressed in the following way: "Towards the outside world, something in which we have failed twice before, has to be realized".

Everyone understands -- there's probably no one in the world who doesn't know what was it that Germany failed in twice before, vis-a-vis the outside world. So, according to the German Foreign Minister himself, the task for this country's foreign policy is to use its potentials to realize what it failed to achieve in two world wars, and the only question that remains is whether that will be achieved by the old or by the new means.

Kohl himself said in a TV programme, on the day of the recognition of Croatia secession: "There is a particularly intense affiliation between the Germans and the Croats, which is largely related to history." This historical vertical line pointed out by Kohl, like the historical vertical line in the German foreign policy and the actions pointed out by Kinkel, and finally also a similar vertical line in the actions and policies of their Croat satellite, is sometimes startlingly reflected in almost identical actions and words of the key figures from the time of two world wars, and the time of war against Yugoslavia in the 1990's. Therefore, from the three wars in which the constant staple of the German policy in the Balkans were the anti-Yugoslav pressures.

Myth of 'Greater Serbia' Used as Propaganda Tool for 150 Years

First, there were the blood-soaked efforts to prevent the creation of the Yugoslav state and then even bloodier to destroy that state and wipe it off the face of the earth. The red thread tying the overall rhetoric and the rhetoric of the Germanic bloc of Austria, i.e. the Austro-Hungary, and Germany in the Balkans is the thesis about the danger of creation some kind of Greater Serbia. This danger, this key thesis, has taken the central position also in this false indictment against me -- Greater Serbia. This thesis, this myth, is a creation of Austro-Hungarian propaganda since the second half of the 19th century. It is an integral part of the efforts by the rotting monarchy to keep its occupied Southern Slavic territories.

About this fear that the Southern Slavic nations, shackled under the Austro-Hungarian occupation, carried by the wave of a broad European process of national emancipation and the liberation from the occupier's binds of a score of European nations, as well as reunifications of the divided territories into one state, just as was the case with Germany itself, this fear from realizing such aspirations, although they were natural and historically legitimate in the case of unification of the Southern Slavs, one more German, Ambassador Ralf Hartman, describes in the following way in his book "The Honorable Mediators", on the page 31.

This illustrates the depths of this fear and how far back it goes into the past. I'm quoting him: "Already in 1876, when the Serbian Prince Milos backed the rebellion of the Christian population in Herzegovina and Bosnia against the Turkish rule and when he declared the war to Constantinople, the Russian State Chancellor Prince [Alexander Mikhailovich] Gorchakov, German Chancellor [Otto Von] Bismarck and the Austro-Hungarian Prime Minister [Gyula] Andrassy, upon the Hapsburg pressure, in the so-called Berlin Memorandum, agreed that in the case the Serbs win" -- he quotes: "The Powers will not tolerate creation of the large Slavic state".

The Natural Aspirations Allowed to Everyone, Forever Denied to Serbs

The thing that in 19th century represented for every one — Germans and Russians, Englishmen and Frenchmen, Spaniards and Italians — the most natural and understandable right to a life in a unified state, was to remain forever denied to the Southern Slavs, or rather, to Serbs. Their aspiration towards the state unification was declared heretical and turned into a threatening apparition. The name of this apparition was "Greater Serbia" and that is how it has remained in Vienna, Berlin and elsewhere ever since, without calming down till today, even though the Serbian Kingdom was too small and weak in comparison to the big European powers, and even though the Serbian population never exceeded 10 million.

This indictment is the best proof how correct all of this is, because it is the apparitions that are being discussed here. What is particularly striking is the fact that way back in the Austro-Hungarian propaganda, the liberation from the centuries-long yoke of Ottoman and Hapsburg occupation, and the unification of the Southern Slavs, not only the Serbs, was treated and referred to as the aspiration for creation of the Greater Serbia, or the expansion of the Serbian state. Such formulation implicates the existence of some conquering, expansionist tendencies among the Serbs, as opposed to the formulation on creation of the state of the Southern Slavs — not only the Serbs, but all the Southern Slavs, which points to the fact that part of the Southern Slavic peoples were under the foreign occupation and which leads to understanding the roots of the idea of Yugoslavia.

Someone's Aspirations to Dominate the Balkans Covered Up by Anti-Serbian Propaganda

And the roots of the Yugoslav idea have sprung within the Croat nation. But in spite of that, when the Serbs accepted that idea in order to help their enslaved brothers under Austro-Hungarian rule, it was labeled as the Greater Serbia idea and the sign of equality was always put between the two terms which are absolutely not the same: between Yugoslavia, the common state of the Southern Slavic peoples, on the one hand, and some kind of Greater Serbia, on the other, as the product and the tool of anti-Yugoslav and anti-Serbian propaganda.

Therefore, both then and now, someone's aspirations to dominate and control the territories inhabited by the Southern Slavic nations and to keep those nations enslaved, had to be covered up with the propaganda smokescreen, that it is in fact Serbia which has precisely such intentions, to spread into the territories which belong to others, which is the bare-naked lie.

To be continued....