U.S. support for Croatian invasion of Krajina
In contrast to the storm of outrage in the media when the Serbs moved into the town of Srebrenica, there was no such coverage two weeks later when on Aug. 3, 1995, in a blitzkrieg attack, Croatian forces with U.S. backing launched the biggest and the bloodiest offensive in four years of civil war.
Within a week 200,000 new refugees were fleeing the Croatian army. However, there was no coverage of these old people being driven from their homes or the chaos of thousands fleeing the bombing of their villages. There was no sympathy and there was no talk of sanctions on Croatia. Secretary of State Warren Christopher declared that the crushing military offensive was "to our advantage."
Pentagon support amounted to far more than just a nod of approval. According to the London Independent of Aug. 6, 1995, "The re-arming and training of Croatian Forces in preparation for the present offensive are part of a classic CIA operation: probably the most ambitious operation of its kind since the end of the Vietnam war."
The London Times of Aug. 5 reported that "the rearming of Croatia remains one of the biggest untold stories of the Yugoslav war. American officials strenuously deny any involvement in this operation but the region is teeming with former generals who unconventionally chose the Balkans, rather than Florida, for their well-earned retirement."
"Safe areas" launching pads for U.S. war
On a daily basis news coverage in the U.S. refers to Serb violations of UN-declared "safe areas," six towns held by the Bosnian government and surrounded by Serb-held territory. This term reinforces the popular misconception that the "safe areas" are neutral, demilitarized, civilian havens removed from the civil war. U.S. military support has made this term a cynical fraud.
The excuse for every NATO bombing of the Bosnian Serb forces has been an alleged Serb attack on a "safe area." But it is U.S. military intervention that has made these "safe areas" unsafe. The "safe areas" are really staging areas for U.S.-backed Bosnian army offensives against the Bosnian Serb forces.
UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali confirmed this in a report to the UN Security Council on May 30, 1995 (UN Document S/1995/444):
"In recent months [the U.S.-backed Bosnian] government forces have considerably increased their military activity in and around most safe areas, and many of them, including Sarajevo, Tuzla and Bihac, have been incorporated into the broader military campaign of the [Bosnian] government’s side.
"The headquarters and the logistics installations of the Fifth Corps of the [Bosnian] government army are located in the town of Bihac and those of the Second Corps in the town of Tuzla.
"The government also maintains a substantial number of troops in Srebrenica (in this case a violation of a demilitarization agreement), Gorazde and Zepa, while Sarajevo is the location of the General Command of the government army and other military installations. There is also an ammunition factory in Gorazde.
"The Bosnian Serb forces’ reaction to offensives launched by the [U.S.-backed Bosnian] government army from safe areas have generally been to respond against military targets within those areas."
Still another explosion on Aug. 28, 1995, at a small enclosed marketplace in Sarajevo killed 37 people. It became the U.S. pretext for the most massive military action in Europe since World War II. More than 4,000 U.S.-NATO military air sorties were carried out.
New York Times Washington correspondent David Binder reported in the Oct. 2, 1995, issue of The Nation magazine that the explosion came the day after Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke promised more active NATO air strikes. Only an excuse was needed. Binder quotes four different military sources disputing the immediate UN report that blamed the Bosnian Serbs for the explosion.
Russian artillery officer Col. Andrei Demurenko went on television in Sarajevo to denounce the UN report on the explosion as a falsification. He announced that the probability of hitting a street less than 30 feet wide from Serb artillery positions one to two miles away was "one in one million."
A Canadian specialist with extensive service in Bosnia told Binder that the fuse of the mortar shell recovered from the marketplace crater "had not come from a mortar tube at all."
Two unidentified U.S. administration officials in Sarajevo explained to Binder that based on the trajectory, the shallowness of the crater, and the absence of any high-pitched distinct whistle, the shell was either fired from a very close range or dropped from a nearby roof into the crowd.
Although Binder is a regular correspondent for the New York Times, he had to go to The Nation with this story.
The U.S. media’s outrage over the marketplace explosion in Sarajevo stands in sharp contrast to the great approval for the U.S. launch of 13 Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting the city of Banja Luka. Banja Luka is a city behind the Bosnian Serb lines. It is the second largest city in Bosnia—and the city with the most refugees of all of the former Yugoslavia. In the U.S.-NATO attack many civilians were killed and one hospital was bombed.
‘End the arms embargo’ means widen the war
The demand to "end the arms embargo" is raised as a simple slogan of the Bosnian government’s right to defend itself. Like the term "safe areas" the reality is far different.
"End the arms embargo" means to legitimize tens of thousands of U.S. troops technically training the Bosnian army in advanced military equipment, securing airports and roads for landing and moving heavy equipment. It further involves U.S. surveillance flights and ground cover in a mountainous region where a dependent, isolated minority government currently controls small enclaves. This would greatly expand Pentagon involvement beyond the CIA training and supply level of today and the NATO air cover of more than 40,000 sorties in the past three years.
There’s a struggle within the summits of U.S. power between those who want to rely on U.S./NATO bombing missions to destroy the Bosnian Serb forces and those who feel the only way to decisively control and reshape the region is through U.S. ground troops and an end to the arms embargo. Both sides of the debate seek to expand and widen the war. Both sides of the debate assert the right of U.S. finance capital to impose its solution.
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