bosnet-digest V5 #65 / Tuesday, 13 February 1996

From: Dzevat Omeragic <[email protected]>

Bosnia-Herzegovina News Directory

CONTENTS

[01] VOA: Yugoslavia: Death of a nation

Source: Voice of America

DATE=2/9/96

TYPE=CLOSEUP

NUMBER=4-08898

TITLE='YUGOSLAVIA: DEATH OF A NATION'

BYLINE=PAMELA TAYLOR TELEPHONE=619-1101 DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=PHIL HAYNES

INTRO: ONE OF THE MORE IMPORTANT BOOKS ABOUT THE DISINTEGRATION

OF THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA WAS JUST RELEASED IN

CONJUNCTION WITH THE WIDELY ACCLAIMED TELEVISION

DOCUMENTARY 'THE DEATH OF YUGOSLAVIA'. THE BOOK, WRITTEN

BY JOURNALISTS LAURA SILBER OF LONDON'S FINANCIAL TIMES

AND ALLAN LITTLE OF THE BBC, IS TITLED 'YUGOSLAVIA:

DEATH OF A NATION'. IT WAS PUBLISHED BY T-V BOOKS IN NEW

YORK. VOA'S PAMELA TAYLOR TALKED WITH LAURA SILBER ABOUT

THE BOOK CRITICS ARE CALLING A DAMNING PORTRAIT OF MEN

WHO FANNED THE FLAMES OF NATIONALISM AND WAR OUT OF A

REALIZATION THEY COULD NOT STAY IN POWER A FREE-MARKET

DEMOCRACY.

PT: LAURA, AS YOU KNOW A LOT OF REVIEWERS HAVE PRAISED THIS

BOOK AND SAID THAT NOT ONLY DOES IT -- AND THE TV

DOCUMENTARY --PROVIDE A UNIQUE AND DAMNING HISTORY OF

HOW THIS TERRIBLE WAR GOT STARTED, BUT YOUR BOOK SHOWS

HOW SERBIAN PRESIDENT SERBIAN PRESIDENT SLOBODAN

MILOSEVIC WAS THE PRIME MOVER. AS IN THE TV

DOCUMENTARY, YOU MANAGED TO DO THIS BY USING THE WORDS

OF SERB LEADERS THEMSELVES. WHICH INTERVIEWS SURPRISED

YOU THE MOST BY WHAT THE PERSON YOUR WERE TALKING TO

INADVERTENTLY REVEALED?

LS: WELL, I WOULD SAY THAT WITHOUT A DOUBT THAT WAS BORISAV

JOVIC [YOH-VITCH], ONE OF MILOSEVIC'S CLOSEST AIDES

SINCE HIS RISE TO POWER. I'M NOT SURE HE INADVERTENTLY

REVEALED IT, I THINK HE DECIDED TO REVEAL IT BECAUSE HE

SENSED MILOSEVIC WAS GOING TO TURN HIS BACK ON HIM.

TIME AND TIME AGAIN WE CONDUCTED FROM 15 TO 16 HOURS OF

OFF THE RECORD INTERVIEWS WITH BORISAV JOVIC AND THEN

FILMED HIM AS WELL LATER ON. AND IT WAS AMAZING TO SEE

JUST HOW MUCH HE WAS WILLING TO TALK ABOUT, HOW MUCH IT

WAS 'WELL, MILOSEVIC AND I DID THIS AND SLOBO AND I DID

THAT' AND THERE WERE TIMES HE REALLY GAVE US REAL

INSIGHT INTO HOW DECISIONS WERE MADE AND WHAT STEPS THE

DECIDED TO TAKE AT A CERTAIN POINT. EVEN BEFORE THE

WAR, THE DECISION TO WAGE WAR. HE REALLY GAVE US THE

MOST INSIGHT OF ANYONE WE TALKED TO.

PT: AND SPECIFICALLY HE SAID SOMETHING I CERTAINLY HADN'T

HEARD SPELLED OUT SO CONCRETELY BEFORE, AND THAT IS WHEN

HE SAID A DECISION WAS TAKEN IN BELGRADE TO ARM THE

BOSNIAN SERBS AND THE SERBS IN KRAJINA?

LS: I THINK ONE OF THE REASONS THE SERBIAN REGIME DOESN'T

LIKE THIS DOCUMENTARY PARTICULARLY IS IT REMINDS THEM

WHAT HAPPENED 5 YEARS AGO, 6 YEARS AGO AND RIGHT NOW ALL

THE REGIMES IN THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA ARE LOOKING FOR A

CASE OF COLLECTIVE AMNESIA. AND SO WHAT HAPPENED IN

THIS PARTICULAR INSTANCE IS THAT JOVIC IS TELLING US,

'WELL WE MADE THIS DECISION. WE MADE THE DECISION TO

HAVE REALLY WHAT AMOUNTED TO A PHONY PULLOUT OF THE

YUGOSLAV ARMY IN APRIL 1992, MAY 1992, AFTER THE WAR HAD

ALREADY STARTED IN THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA.' WHAT THEY

DID WAS TRANSFER ALL THE SERB ARMY OFFICERS WHO WERE

NATIVES OF BOSNIA BACK TO BOSNIA AND ALONG WITH THEIR

EQUIPMENT. SO WHEN THE YUGOSLAV ARMY PULLED OUT IN MAY

1992, THEY LEFT AN ARMY THERE READY TO WAGE WAR.

PT: YOU ALSO SAID SOMETHING ABOUT WHAT YOU CALLED 'THE

RADIANT GLARE OF NATIONALISM BEING MORE ATTRACTIVE TO

ORDINARY SERBS THAN THE PROMISE OF AN IMPROVED ECONOMY,

NEW CARS, FOREIGN TRAVEL ETC. TELL US ABOUT THAT.

LS: AT THAT TIME YUGOSLAVIA HAD SORT OF A BURST OF

PROSPERITY AND THERE WERE A LOT OF EXPORTED GOODS IN

YUGOSLAVIA. THERE WAS REALLY A SENSE THAT MAYBE ECONOMIC

CRISES COULD BE PUT BEHIND THEM. YUGOSLAVIA SEEMED AT

THAT POINT VERY WELL POSITIONED TO MAKE THE TRANSITION

IN EUROPE. SO WHAT HAPPENED WAS THAT PRESIDENT

MILOSEVIC WAS STIRRING UP NATIONALISM, HE GAVE THEM AN

ALTERNATIVE. HE SAID TO THEM, 'WELL, THIS WAS ALL

SURPRESSED FOR SO LONG AND NOW YOU HAVE THE OPTION TO

SAY YOU ARE SERBS AGAIN'. AND THAT'S WHAT THESE PEOPLE

FELT WAS SURPRESSED. MILOSEVIC DIDN'T CREATE THE

NATIONALIST SENTIMENTS. THEY WERE THERE BUT HAD NEVER

BEEN DIFUSED OR DEALT WITH UNDER TITO'S COMMUNIST

REGIME. SO MILOSEVIC WAS JUST MANIPULATING THEM AND

IGNIGHTING FEARS AND SAYING 'IF YOU MAKE THIS CHOICE AND

SACRIFICE EVERYTHING YOU WILL HAVE NATIONAL DIGNITY'.

NEB/PAM/PCH

09-Feb-96 4:04 PM EST (2104 UTC) NNNN

Opinions expressed/published on BosNews/BosNet-B do NOT necessarily always reflect the views of (all of the members of) Editorial Board, and/or moderators, nor any of their host institutions.

Murat Erkocevic <[email protected]>

Dzevat Omeragic <[email protected]>

Davor Wagner <[email protected]>

Nermin Zukic <[email protected]>

[02] CEGRE Programme In Czech Republic

The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education (CERGE) is a research and educational institute of Charles University. CERGE offers a Ph.D program in theoretical and applied economics, working in close cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh (USA), Princeton University and the Economics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Research on economic transformation in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe is an integral part of CERGE's activities.

The basic mission of CERGE is to train future university faculty, economic researchers and public administration representatives. The doctoral program curriculum is designed to transfer the modern Western system of Ph.D study in Economics, as it is practiced in the United States, into the academic environment of Central and Eastern Europe. Studies are conducted entirely in English. Roughly half of the staff are professors from prominent U.S. and Western Europe universities . The program offers economic education on a world standard to students from Central and Eastern Europe in centrally located Prague, without the necessity of more expensive study abroad. The best students are usually offered the opportunity to visit an appropriate university in the U.S. (Pittsburgh, Princeton, New York University, University of Maryland, Harvard) for up to one year. The duration of the program is four years; the first two years of coursework provide the theoretical basis for the independent dissertation research, which is done in the last two years.

CERGE is especially interested in increasing enrolment for students from the Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia. The application deadline for the 1996-97 academic year is March 15.

For more information, please contact:

Ms Gwendolyn Albert, CERGE-EI P.O. BOX 882 Politickych veznu 7, 111 21 Prague 1 Czech Republic tel. (42-2) 240 05 137 fax: (42-2) 242 11 374 e-mail: [email protected]

Opinions expressed/published on BosNews/BosNet-B do NOT necessarily always reflect the views of (all of the members of) Editorial Board, and/or moderators, nor any of their host institutions.

Murat Erkocevic <[email protected]>

Dzevat Omeragic <[email protected]>

Davor Wagner <[email protected]>

Nermin Zukic <[email protected]>

[03] Working For Peace In The Balkans: A Guide To US Orgs

WORKING FOR PEACE IN THE BALKANS: A GUIDE TO U.S. ORGANIZATIONS

The Balkan War Resource Group (BWRG) is now preparing a new edition of WORKING FOR PEACE IN THE BALKANS: A GUIDE TO U.S. ORGANIZATIONS. (*)

We have already sent paper-mail requests to many groups, inviting them to be listed in the new Guide. If you have not gotten that mail, or have not yet responded to it, we urge you to respond to this post if you would like your group to be included.

The new directory will be paper-published in the Spring, and we will make a major effort to present it to news organizations and the media. The Guide will be available online, and all groups will be included in a searchable database.

The countries of former Yugosavia are now poised between war and peace, and for peace to really take hold there must be renewed outreach by all the friends of a multiethnic Balkans. By listing your organization in the Guide, you will be reaching more of the U.S. public at a time when they may otherwise forget about the Balkans and the part they can play in helping move beyond the current uneasy peace.

The following materials are available be email:

(a) A full information sheet about the project and the BWRG (b) Questionnaire for supplying information to us via email (c) Questionnaire for supplying information to us via snailmail

Please send your reply/request to BWRG at any of these addresses:

Email: [email protected]

Snail: BWRG c/o AFSC,

15 Rutherford Place,

New York, N.Y. 10003

Tel: 212-598-0958

Fax: 212-529-4603

or BWRG c/o Helsinki Citizens Assembly/USA,

Box 2391,

New York, NY 10185

Thanks for your interest! Balkans War Research Group - -------------------------- (*) - The current Guide is at <gopher://gopher.igc.apc.org/11/peace/yugo> or at <www.igc.apc.org/balkans> (click on the gopher link). Subscribers to peacenet/IGC/APC can go the topic in yugo.antiwar.

Opinions expressed/published on BosNews/BosNet-B do NOT necessarily always reflect the views of (all of the members of) Editorial Board, and/or moderators, nor any of their host institutions.

Murat Erkocevic <[email protected]>

Dzevat Omeragic <[email protected]>

Davor Wagner <[email protected]>

Nermin Zukic <[email protected]>