War Without End

Paolo Rumiz, an editor and reporter with the Trieste daily "Il Piccolo", is an expert on events in the former Yugoslavia. He recently received the highly regarded national "Max David" award for his reporting on the changes that have occurred in the post-communist countries of central and southern Europe. Paolo Rumiz is the first "local" journalist to receive this award. Among the previous recipients - great names from great newspapers - is Frane Barbijeri of "La Stampa", once editor-in-chief of Belgrade's "NIN". The explanation for the presentation of the award states that Rumiz is "a cautious and unbiased witness to the Yugoslav tragedy, with the conscience of a chronicler, the quality of an expert, the elegance of an excellent writer and the knowledge of a historian - characteristics typical of a great reporter. Rumiz has thus far written three books: Stories From the New Europe, on the fall of communism in the countries along the Danube; Where the Blueberries Grow, on the growing nationalism in the East and the Yugoslav tragedy; and the just published Wind From the Land, on Istria and Rijeka.

VREME: Some of the citizens of Serbia, those who believe that they have managed to maintain common sense, are deeply disappointed by the inability of world institutions to contribute to an end to the war.

RUMIZ: This is a point of view which is more than correct. This is something that I have already been thinking for three years. Yugoslavia represents a part of Europe; it is not different from Europe. Therefore, the mistake is that the West views Yugoslavia and events there as something oriental, Asiatic, uneuropean, barbaric. The mistake is also that Yugoslavia views the West as something different. This is because what has happened in Yugoslavia is the quintessence of European problems. Europe's inability to solve the problems in Yugoslavia is the same type of inability which blocks Yugoslavia from solving its own problems. There is no difference. There is no doubt that this war has confronted us with the weaknesses of the United Nations, NATO and the instruments of European defense and with the fact that the world is no longer divided into two blocs.

VREME: You are, if I may say so, a professional witness to the Yugoslav drama. How do you see its end, if you see one?

RUMIZ: I do not see an end in the next twenty years. If we assume that so-called Greater Serbia can be achieved, the borders of this Serbia will be undefined in the same way as the borders of Croatia. Therefore, these two countries are faced with the inevitable problem of direct confrontation. Everything depends upon whether economic forces will be stronger than political ones. For example, economically it is natural that Knin be tied to Zagreb or to Split or Zadar and not Belgrade. Politically, Knin looks to Belgrade. The question is whether economics or politics will prevail.

VREME: Serbian president Milosevic has traveled the road from "aggressor" and "butcher" to "peacemaker". Will the West continue to isolate him or will it attempt to win him over through abatement?

RUMIZ: The West cannot further exacerbate its relations with Milosevic because it has already demonstrated its powerlessness. Thanks to his intelligence, Milosevic understood this powerlessness before those who surround him. Therefore, the West has no choice but to recognize his victory and utilize the total control that he has over the situation in order to bring the war to a "lower level".