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The Balkan DivideThe Balkans is a part of Europe beset by tragedy. In our own time we have seen conflicts between Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Serbs. Latterly there has insurgence by Albanians in the Kosovo province of Serbia demanding autonomy which has been responded to by often unacceptable and indiscriminate force by the Serbs. There have been atrocities on all sides although the western press has usually focussed on the crimes of the Serbs and not always with equal understanding or sympathy for the plight of the Serbian people themselves. If you are an American for example, how would you like it if a "Texas Lone Star Independence Movement" started taking up arms against the Federal Government? How would the British Government feel if Cornwall were to engage in an armed struggle to secede from the Union? One thing which is sadly lacking from the West's involvement in this running sore known as the Balkans is a sense of history. Now when it comes to war crimes of course on any side, history is completely irrelevant. But I am not talking about war crimes here. That is not the point at issue; rather we need to face up to the fact that the West often approaches international issues as if history, culture, language and religion don't really matter. Because the democratic west is now largely built upon secular, modernist and pluralist principles, it is highly intolerant of other societies which do not operate on such "self evident truths," (so-called!) History of course can be used (and has been used) to justify all sorts of atrocities. The British and Irish need not look any further than Northern Ireland for example when it comes to history as a "ball and chain." Although not without its problems,( including recently embarrassment for the ANC), it has been different in South Africa. Here the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has tried to exorcise the past. No such attempt has been made in the Balkans. The Balkan Muslims feel oppressed as the last ripples of the Ottoman Empire recede from their feet. The Serbs nurse their centuries old wounds concerning the Battle of Kosovo. The Croats exalt their European credentials by courting Germany but not without the Serbs reminding them of their collaboration with the Nazis in the last War. The ghosts of history still stalk the Balkans because they are not acknowledged. We are dealing with an East-West divide here and we probably have been facing this ever since the break up of the Roman Empire whose administrative boundary ran down the middle of present day Bosnia. And so we have America, Britain, Germany and the Vatican lining up with the Bosnians and Albanians. Russia, primarily, shores up its southern Slav brothers. It's difficult not to see here the west's inaction as Constantinople fell to the Turks. It's difficult not to see a modern pan-European ideal based on the westernisation of the East. None of this is going to help the peoples of the Balkans live together in peace. Every single ham-fisted initiative by the west in the Balkans seems to have been bungled. No wonder the Muslims feel let down and no wonder the Serbs feel that this is all a western plot. Personally I think in the West it's a mixture of opportunism, a lack of imagination or sympathy and a tendency to see others as we see ourselves. The West can only really have a positive role in the Balkans when it faces some of its own demons. Fr Gregory |
