Political Folklore

This did not really upset London, but it surely did upset Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, for two reasons: firstly, he described the threat as "an idiotic and irresponsible blunder"; secondly, such statements cannot be made by just anybody, but only by "the civilian authorities", that is, Karadzic himself (who had made similar statements before). However, the criticism was not exactly received the way it should have been: the Chief of Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army, General Manojlo Milovanovic, stated at the celebration of the First Bircanska Brigade that "General Mladic does not make statements on his own. That is the standpoint of the General Staff. We shall go so far until the last Serb on the planet becomes equal with all other citizens of the world." "The idiotic statement" made by an individual turned into a collective one. General Milovanovic also clarified the way: "The whole world is aware that we cannot reach London and New York by plane, but we have got the Serbs in London, New York, Australia, and wherever else they may be needed."

In other words - terrorism. Does that mean that they got amused by unpunished blowing up of mosques, abductions of unprotected civilians to be killed and ransomed of is this a usual psychological operation?

Threats of terrorism and similar acts have accompanied the development of rampant Serbian nationalism from the very beginning. It has been threatened with the Russian who would dash here if a single hair on the head was harmed; the Serbs outside Serbia were told to endure a little longer until the Serbian volunteers arrive.

At the beginning of the War in 1991 leader of the Serbian Radical Party, Vojislav Seselj - who will later prove to be an expert in ecological terrorism and pulling out firearms at unarmed children and their teachers during the Students' protest last summer - threatened to attack the nuclear power plant in Krsko, and, then, to ruin the dam of the hydroelectric power plant Djerdap. Both threats have something in common: in case they are actually carried out it is the Serbs who would suffer most. But, this failed to comfort the Bulgarian Commander of Civil Defense. He stated on Friday that they were already conducting drills for the evacuation of population if there is a "terrorist attack" on the Djerdap, so that his Rumanian colleague had to console him by saying that the Djerdap dam is so firm that it would withstand a nuclear attack...

The next candidate was Bosnian Serb Minister, famous Aleksa Buha. "Should anybody dare to touch the Serbs, they will activate their special terrorist units, also the "Kamikazes", which are made up of our allies," he said. Nuclear power plants in Western Europe, and all other objects whose destruction would cause mass disasters would be marked as the targets. Similar threats of suicidal attacks by kamikaze-pilots on the Krsko nuclear power plant could also be heard. Since the Bosnian Serbs took control of 70 per cent of the territory of B-H, "by defending themselves", a need for spectacular attacks did not arise.

The signing of the Vance plan by the end of 1991 triggered a wave of threats coming form the pseudo-opposition extreme right parties within Serbia. The Serbian National Revival Party (SNO) was particularly exposed: Mirko Jovic, Milan Bastaja and Dragoslav Bokan screamed the alarm because of the arrival of UNPROFOR, claiming that the U.N. soldiers are "infected with AIDS and drugs" and describing them as "the Catholic-Muslim army", which they would "treat as the occupation army," that is, they would "lie in ambush behind every scrub." Naturally, nothing came of it. The state media sided with the extremists - just in case - so that Aleksandar Davinic warned in the Belgrade daily "Politika Ekspres" on January 23, 1993 of the classified information "from well informed sources in Vienna" (even Vienna can be of use occasionally) that "the descendants of Ustashi and Black shirts" wearing blue helmets would infiltrate Yugoslavia in "a super-secret operation...which costs about 10 million dollars" (and is paid for by the Vatican, of course) whose goal would be to "speed up the departure of peace-keeping forces"! General Andriaj Biorcevic (Vukovar operation) was much more sincere and direct regarding the same issue: welcoming the U.N. forces in Dalj in March 1992, he told them clearly that "the Serbian people had to live in one state." "If you are unable to provide this through diplomatic means, we shall attain our goal through the war. We'll wade in knee-deep blood...", he added. And, that's how it was.

The threats which have a realistic background (or the background represented as being realistic) are a long story. Seselj threatened with the missiles with which his people would ruin Italy, but also some other countries whose territories would be used for action against the Bosnian Serbs. The generals of the Serb Republic in B-H, and some others, threatened to attack Vienna, Zagreb, and other places. The domestic extreme right wing joined them. However, new threats, which were directed at the Serbs in Serbia, also appeared. On several occasions Miss Sonja Karadzic (a daughter of the Bosnian Serb leader) along with some other prominent men close to Karadzic objected to the Serbs in Serbia for their weakness, and, generally speaking, for their decadence and "poor quality". Their supporters here - the people like Seselj, Jovic and Bokan, but an accompanying choir of "intellectuals" as well, would gladly join the campaign of ethnic cleansing of the bad Serbs. The problem is that Milosevic joined the bad Serbs, by supporting the Vance-Owen plan, so that they are at a loss as what to do.

No wonder that those who should be afraid are showing no reaction (although the Italian generals used Seselj's threats to obtain some weapons from the US.). The English said coldly that they had broad experience with the IRA, and therefore are used to it. The Germans and the French have a similar case, not even to mention the Americans. Finally, it was not the Serbs who invented terrorism, even though they have a tradition...But, the others have more experience in stamping out terrorism. And, then, we hit the nail on the head, when it comes to all the Serbs: if those who are being threatened so easily with terrorism decide to take the threat seriously (regardless of how serious the threat trully is) the Serbs worldwide do not have anything good in store for them. All emigrants of Serb descent will become "interesting" in terms of security and "subject to criminal and operative treatment", as it would be said using the local police jargon. That means espionage, expulsion, arrests, bugging, etc. The countries which have esperience with terrorism are prone to these things. The Serbs will, thus, - thanks to idiotic statements made by the individuals and collectives, who do not even represent themselves and let alone all Serbs - become an ostracized and endangered species, somewhat like the Palestinians after the Munic Olympics. Perhaps, this is what these retarded threats are intended for: to fulfill the prophecy that the whole world trully begins to hate the Serbs.