1 U.S. and NATO plans
to divide Yugoslavia (excerpt)Ramsey Clark
Yugoslavia had one of the worst experiences in World War II. It’s not commonly told. But there was a major killing camp—concentration camp, as we tend to call them—at Jasenovac in the Nazi state of Croatia, according to a very detailed, elaborately researched book called The Yugoslav Auschwitz. It’s by Vladimir Dedijer, a really interesting man I’ve had the good fortune to know for many years. He was vice chairman of the Bertrand Russell War Crimes Tribunal and also wrote a major biography of Tito, with some understanding of what was accomplished in the Yugoslav Federation after World War II. His research on the slaughter of the Serbs came out in a new reprint in the United States recently.
It is a document of basic historic importance. Many of the children of those killed, and even some of those interned, are still alive. Without a federation to protect them living with each other, it wouldn’t be easy, and everybody knew that.
Don’t think that NATO isn’t planning the map of Europe every day, knowing exactly what it wants it to look like. Don’t think they don’t know the composition of the peoples, the physical terrain and the natural resources, the industry and all the rest. They’re working on it constantly.
And if you think a country is too small for them to be interested in, you just haven’t seen anything. Was Grenada bigger? There’s never been a military engagement in history where so many armed troops went so far to attack so few. A people with no defense. The Pentagon inflicted more casualties per capita on the Grenadian population than the United States lost in World War II.
Don’t think there’s not a purpose to it. Not long after Tito died, as the influence of the Soviet Union declined and its capacity to intervene in anything became negligible—which made the Gulf War possible—the plans to divide Yugoslavia were under way. There can’t be any doubt about that. Just look at our legislation, look at what so many people have said in memoirs and other things. The plans were under way.
And there are lots of interests in there. In Slovenia there are over one million Italians. Slovenia and Croatia are the richer parts of the country. We can talk about the success of the federation in terms of the basic quality of life. The people had food, clothing, education, housing, and things like that. In terms of per capita income it was a Third World nation, richer in the north than in the south. Slovenia had about $9,500 per capita income, Croatia over $7,000, Serbia $3,500, Bosnia less than that. Go a bit further south and it’s a poor, underdeveloped country.
The purposes of dismantling Yugoslavia have to be understood. Germany obviously had a keen interest. Everybody knew when it was dismantled there would be hell to pay. The United States used ways to direct the violence, and for four or five years now the violence has been directed in the way the United States likes to fight a war—"You and them fight."
This chapter is based on a paper presented to a conference in Prague, Czech Republic, on 13-14 January 1996.
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The full text of this chapter is available in the book, NATO in the Balkans. Link here for order information.
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