The Same Old Stories

It is a matter of pride and dignity not to start tapping each other on the shoulder after a serious quarrel. It is true that the Serbs and the Croats love to practice pride and dignity on each other, but, as a safeguard, let the telephones and traffic remain severed for a little while longer. Who knows who would call whom and why, and where people would travel if it were easy. We are men of weak character and it could happen that some long-separated relatives would kiss before asking what they did in the war and who they voted for. What if some youngster walks across the border and, out of foolishness or spite, trips up and gets himself hooked into a mixed marriage. Who will tell the children that they're victims or aggressors? This way, when the road leads across Hungary and with a sufficiently strict visa regime, the risk is minimal. Let those who would never think of marrying meet freely. Like Jovanovic and Granic. Or Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

In this respect, I believe that, if Serbian and Croatian academicians and national intellectuals met, this too would be a very harmless meeting. They certainly have much to say to each other, with chosen words, and it would make better television than a sports event. If someone were to pay them well and buy exclusive coverage rights, they'd make the deal of the year.

Instead of Parliament bores who vent all of their anger on controversies based on lesser and greater patriotism and support of the Serbian cause, we would have an international meeting of the greatest Serbs and Croats. Yugoslavia would send former Yugoslav President Dobrica Cosic, Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) ideologue and academician Mihailo Markovic, Serbian Orthodox Bishops Amfilohije and Atanasije, author Brana Crncevic and Serbian Radical Party (SRS) leader Vojislav Seselj (all known as nationalist hard-liners). Croatia would come up with some of the same. It would be exciting to watch them sitting down together, scowling at each other and adopting hard-line stands.

The meeting would inevitably start with: "The first condition for any kind of dialogue is that you admit that..." Then: "You must first apologize for what your nation has done to our nation..." "And before that, you did this to us..." "O.K. let's do an honest count of the victims, and then we'll know..." "We know all about your counting and your honesty..." And thereby the conversation would immediately take on a freer, more direct vocabulary. That would be the beginning, the middle and the end, and it could last hours and days. From the point of view of those who enjoy fire-works made up of national and personal insults, anger and humiliation of oneself and others, it is a pity that this meeting will never come about. But, this is a serious matter. One of the reasons for the disintegration of Yugoslavia was the fact that the Serb and Croat elite were incapable of conducting an articulate debate.

I'm afraid that it won't help much to point out that members of this elite, individually or as a whole, do not deserve to be on such a team. Because they are obsessed by the past, they cannot distinguish what the real interests are, they have no democratic experience, and they don't understand the modern world. However, with such characteristics they do represent their nations quite well; a large part of Serbo-Croat history is such that it defies an articulate debate.

It is easy to find Serbian and Croatian intellectuals who would speak nicely from the left and liberal positions, but they are apt to overlook and neglect topics so dear to the majority of Serbs and Croats today, and it is precisely these over which the nationalists would immediately begin fighting - how the former state fell apart, how the war started, who is guilty, and how much and what they all owe each other. These questions cannot be translated into another vocabulary, nor is it enough to accuse only one or the other regime. And there are no foreign occupiers who would take all the blame.

Many Serbs and Croats are prepared to admit their bit of responsibility to a third party, but not to each other. The questions are painful and few would be satisfied if mutual guilt were admitted and we all agreed that we, here, are all the same. It sounds especially silly when I hear how someone here in Belgrade skips easily over everything and talks of a new Yugoslavia without asking anyone anything. As if Yugoslavia were a normal situation to which we must all return, just as a man goes home after the pubs close. I also liked our old home, but I know that no one will live in it anymore.

I would say that the chances of a great Serbo-Croat dialogue are rather limited and the reasons for it are no longer all that important. The separation of Serbs and Croats has already been partially completed and both sides are writing their official histories. In Belgrade and Zagreb, the need to talk with the other side is still felt only by a small group of intellectuals who find it difficult to stomach official lies and want to maintain a clear conscience and moral hygiene. It may sound like a paradox, but they might find it easier to begin a dialogue because of the very fact that the two national states have separated and even turned their backs on each other, so that Croatia looks to the West and Serbia to the East. The Serbs and Croats might discover that they prefer and better understand each other if they talk over their shoulders, without looking at each other. They still have some small details to hammer out, such as the Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia.

What has remained is the grey zone from Knin to the Drina River, and it has turned out to be bigger than either of the pure national states. There are also the Muslims, about whom both Belgrade and Zagreb agree that they are in the wrong place. This whole territory is now covered by four, five or six legal or de facto states. Luckily, Belgrade and Zagreb no longer have any say about who is going to get what in the end, if there is an end. While they were the ones making the decisions, they managed to create a problem over which the whole world has broken its teeth.

I hear there is talk of the need to renew some links in the entire region, and this I cannot criticize. It's just that I think that the Serbs and Croats should also work a little on themselves, because the way they are at present they are not fit for society. Belgrade and Zagreb, now that they are alone, have the chance of taking a good look at each other and they should remember this before they resume relations, so that they won't be able to blame each other again. And they should remember to leave the Muslims out of it all.

I don't know if one should believe the latest news of an agreement between Zagreb and Knin on the opening of some waterworks, parts of the oil pipeline, transmission lines and roads. So far, they have dreamed of throwing each other into the water and turning on the electric current, but, it is said that great progress has been made. They have started thinking of their interests instead of ways to hurt their neighbors. Perhaps the formula for peace between Belgrade and Zagreb lies somewhere in us starting to buy Ustasha oil and them starting to buy Chetnik electricity.

And as far as a Serbo-Croat dialogue on national issues is concerned, that is pure sado-masochism. But, I have learned that one cannot run away from it.