"Peace" of imperialism is concentration camp for Serbs-Bosnian

Article from JLO # 6 (Nov./Dec/95)

Not succeed in disguising the look of pessimism, the Presidents of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia, Izetegovic, Milosevic and Tudjman, respectively, signed on 21 November, 1996 in Dayton, USA, what they named "Peace Treaties in Bosnia" (that should be ratified in Paris in date no defined yet). Signed under strong pressure from United States, the treaty presupposes the immediate dispatch of 20,000 American soldiers who will command others 40,000 ones from so-called "Peace Forces" in order to control that region.

The treaty maintains the current frontiers of Bosnia and creates two federations in the inland of that country: one for Moslem and Croats and other for Serbs-Bosnian. The former, that owns most of territory, is being cleverly armed by international capital and will count on the support of 60,000 new soldiers from imperialism for foray in Bosnian territory. Behind the treaty, the military alliance between Croatian and Bosnian Moslem intend to spread out their domains toward West and Northwest Bosnia, capturing cities such as Banja Luka, Mrkonjic Gaad and Sipovo, where they made recent attacks. The Bosnian army have already showed also pretension in conquering to "Posavina Corridor" — area that, according to "peace treaties" would belong to Serbs.

Even if "peace treaties" would be obeyed by Bosnian and Croats, it would be impossible to submit Serbs to their conditions. The latter, who during most of the time of war were identified with villains and seem winners because they used to control, beyond Serbs, 30% of Croatia and 70% of Bosnia, that Serbs would intend to unite in order to form "The Great Serbia", ended up getting the worst of. In Croatia where they used to live centuries ago, Serbs experienced their worst massacre. "The Serbian community in Krajina was reduced to hardly anything, and it stopped to exist." (The Independent, 18 November). Some who still resist in Western Slovenia, region rich in oil, are being persecuted by Croatian army that has "the prospect of dominating the region in a maxim term of two years." (Idem). The remaining survivors, about 150,000, were driven out to Bosnia.

In Bosnia, bombarded by NATO, the United States and Moslem-Croatian front, Serbs who used to live in Bosnia were forced to leave the main cities of the country, after being abandoned by Serbia, that broken the military alliance with remaining Serbs in exchange for stoppage of economic impediment against it (which shows the fallacy of the "defence of pure ethnic"). Today almost 1,3 millions of Serbs are confined in Bosnian inland. With the arrival of more American troops, these Serbs will be disarmed as prevention in combat against "terrorism".

The "peace treaty" is a great farce. In fact it is only an strengthening of imperialist war and slaughter, now directly managed by Washington. The most optimistic previsions find "impossible that at least some hundreds of deaths do not occur" (Folha de São Paulo, 22 November) and are incapable of foreseeing how long will last the American intervention.

The farce has the connivance of Serbian leader in Bosnia, Radovan Karadzic, who was pressured by Milosevic from Serbia to accept the American treaty. From great leader, Karadzic is already being considered traitor among Serbs-Bosnian, who are not passives neither before false peace treaty nor before the American intervention, on the point of betraying their local leaders for giving to imperialism his local leaders' head in a charger. In Sarajevo thousands of Serbs — among them hundreds of students, soldier and war mutilated persons — went out into to streets for protest against the "treaty" and the war. In conformity with terms of this treaty, 120,000 Serbs from Sarajevo would be expelled from city and would get helpless.

In view of development of conflict under the fraudulent peace treaty, the position of centrist parties coalitioned with imperialism beside Bosnia and Croatia is not only a reactionary position but also a crime against Serbs. It is particularly shameful the position of pseudo-Trotskyist from the PSTU when proclaims that the "peace in there only can be obtained with victory of Bosnian people" (Journal of the PSTU, 67) and asks UN and NATO for suspending immediately the disarmament of Bosnian people" (Idem). This course is not only a bad taste joke, that is told when Bosnia and Croatia are used as guard dogs of imperialism for massacring Serbs-Bosnian, but also is a terrible capitulation to the world-wide bourgeoisie.

In this circumstance, the duty of revolutionaries should be to give military support to Serbs-Bosnian who are virtually living in a great concentration camp, patrolled by Yankee imperialism that uses the Moslem people from Bosnia and Croatia like cannon fodder. In this confrontation, we are militarily in behalf of Serbs-Bosnian and against imperialism and its allies. At the same time we wish to say to Serbs that they do not trust in local nationalist bureaucrats, but let them organise a new and revolutionary leadership both by themselves and all the people of that region (Croatian, Serbs, etc.). Let expel there USA, UN and NATO of that region so that they can rebuild a multiethnic and multinational Workers’ State in Balkan Peninsula.