Commentary

16th August 1998

Non-alignment cannot hold

By Mervyn de Silva

Although Tito's Yugo slavia always made news in the Sri Lankan media we hear so little of that country these days, just a para or two of news agency "copy" . In the past, Non-alignment, Tito and Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike's active foreign policy explained what many commentators and diplomats regarded as a Colombo-Belgrade special relationship, if not axis.

Non-alignment was in fact more Jawaharlal Nehru's idea than Tito's but Nehru realized that Belgrade was a far better capital than Delhi to host the first summit. As a courageous patriot and partisan Tito has won the hearts of his peoples by his heroic role in the bloody struggle against Hitler and fascism. As a military strategist and a statesman he played the game of war, and politics with such skill that Yugoslavia emerged from the war a free and fearlessly independent country. But soon Yugoslavia had to face the menacing challenge of Stalin's expanding empire. The League of Communists had now to accept the stark reality that the independence of their country was threatened not only by the capitalist west but the world's first communist state, the U.S.S.R.

"The life-path of Josip Broz, has despite all its great variety followed a straight line, as dramatic as an illustrated story, occasionally interrupted by vacuums which no biographer has succeeded in filling" wrote Carl E. Buchalla in the respected German newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung. The article was included in the book, Tito In The World Press, on the occasion of his 80th. birthday celebration. (Also included was a tribute written by this journalist in the Daily News).

Tito whose Non-alignment won his country enormous respect and admiration had to admit failure on a more vital question. He could reduce tensions generated by the rivalry of two power blocs but could not resolve the divisive ethnic conflicts in his own country. And so last week's news. Belgrade Media lashed out at German and Austrian journals which reported that over 500 civilians had been executed and buried in mass graves at Orabova in Kosovo.

Horror and rage were the response of the civilized world. A team of European diplomatic observers that visited a mass grave, which included the bodies of children, dismissed the official reaction - deliberate lies fabricated by the international, mainly West European, Meadi. The counter-charge was prompt from the government's Secretary of Information no less. The international media had cold-bloodedly planned "the Satanization of the Serbs".

Islamic Factor

Communism is dead. The Soviet Union has imploded, and there is no Russian empire. The "satellites", to use the old terminology, are all independent states of Eastern Europe. So does the West, the US and its European allies, need a "menacing threat" to keep the alliance alive and its global hegemony intact? The substitute "menace", a direct, deadly threat to western (Christian) values. After all, Prophet Mohammed was stopped before Islam could directly confront Christian civilization.

"Islam's early expansion and success constituted a challenge, theologically, politically, and culturally which proved a stumbling block to understanding and a threat to the Christian West" writes John Exposito, Professor Middle-East studies at the College of the Holy Cross, US (He is also a consultant to the US State Dept.

Though the Prophet Mohammed may have been stopped at the gates of Europe, his teaching does influence both social behaviour and political debate in many parts of Europe. And this may explain why "the West winks" at Serbian atrocities in Kosovo, argues Fred Abraham. a researcher at Human Rights Watch in Washington.

In mid-June there was some light at the end of the tunnel. Soon the western powers became restless and anxious as President Slobodan Milosevic did not seem too keen to implement his pledges. What's more international opinion hardened and Europeans argued increasingly for firm, effective action. Benign intervention, the European press described the exercise

Once a clear, firm decision was reached, there was one powerful instrument that was perfect to undertake the task.. NATO.

But before the juggernaut was let loose, the customary, diplomatic warning signals, Mr. Milosevic was told about Exercise Determined Falcon..... inshort, American fighters and sonic booms. But there was a reply from Belgrade.... through press, radio and TV ! Boom, boom, boom.

But did President Milosevic and his top brass show signs of nervousness and defeatism? Not at all. Alexander Nicoll, based in Belgrade had this to say: The Yugoslav leadership could not be scared off "by the noise of a few sonic booms". In short, the Iraqi exercise could not be repeated and President Saddam has certainly not stopped his sabre rattling if only in his own fashion.

On the war of words too, there is less noise, and yet nobody has left the battlefront.

As for Islam, V.S Naipaul has made an interesting point in his Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among The Converted Peoples, a recent work. A convert's world view alters. His holy places are in Arab lands, his sacred language is Arabic. His idea of history alters.

What of the ethnic Albanians who have launched a separatist war in the name of independence from Serbia, the country's strongest republic? In human terms, the cost has been a 10% exodus about 200,000 . Ethnic cleansing? Another estimate is 300,000.

Tito's Yugoslavia which held the inaugural Non-aligned summit has been torn apart by communities far too strongly committed to their faith and their traditional homelands. The commitment, the alignment is far stronger than socialism, Titoism, Non-alignment.

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