Letter: In the aftermath of Croatia's re-conquest of Krajina

Sir: A point of balance has been reached in the long-standing rivalry between Serbs and Croats in former-Yugoslavia. Given its preference for Balkan strongmen, it is likely that the Foreign Office will be ready to allow the Croats parity with the Serbs in the region, now that they have proven themselves on the battlefield. On past experience, this will result in smaller neighbours, such as Bosnia and Macedonia, being squeezed.

Western Europe should now offer a deal to the luckless peoples of former-Yugoslavia geared towards what they have in common. Croatia and Serbia could be promised close association with the European Union and substantial economic assistance, if the following terms were acceptable:

1. Human rights and media freedom to be fully protected in both countries, with third-party states acting as guarantors;

2. Ethnically cleansed people to be allowed to return home or, if unwilling to do so, given fitting compensation;

3. Victimisation of minorities, such as the Serbs in Croat cities and the Albanians of Kosovo, to be ended;

4. Attempts to incorporate or subvert neighbouring states, including Macedonia and Bosnia, to cease;

5. The need for Belgrade and Zagreb to co-operate economically would be recognised, the volume of aid to be based on the extent of such co- operation.

The peoples of the different parts of former-Yugoslavia should be allowed, under conditions of media freedom, to vote on a co-operation programme. If it were clear that real economic advantages and a partial return to normality would flow from rejecting narrow nationalism, I am convinced that ordinary citizens would be revealed as far more pragmatic and tolerant than their leaders.

Were Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman to reject such a package, it is likely that their authority would be weakened and liberals could at last begin to take the initiative. At the least, this offer would show the tolerant and good-hearted majority in all parts of former-Yugoslavia that Western Europe thought they were worth more than food parcels and life in a refugee camp, and that our leaders wished to include them in their vision of a new Europe.

But, at this turning point, one has to ask - where are the Western leaders with the imagination and stature to put together a Marshal Plan for the Balkans?

Yours sincerely,

Tom Gallagher

Department of Peace Studies

University of Bradford

Bradford

7 August