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1. BACKGROUND
As Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1990 to 1992, I was a witness to the tragic breakup of that country. There were a number of reasons why Yugoslavia was torn apart but one of the primary causes of the tragedy were the failure of western diplomacy. This is not to say that the Yugoslavs themselves were blameless-not at all-but, nevertheless, western intervention exacerbated the problem and precipitated much of the ensuing bloodshed.
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It is said that History never repeats itself, but western interference in the Balkans has repeatedly proven to be disastrous. Lacking adequate knowledge of the region, and ignoring the history and aspirations of the people living there, western governments have historically tried to resolve Balkan problems by pursuing their own narrow foreign policy objectives, which have little or no relevance to the issues on the ground. This was true in the past and remains true today.
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As far back as 1878 after the Russian armies supported by Serbia and Montenegro had defeated the Ottoman Turks, the western powers fearing that Russian Pan-Slav dominance would upset the balance of power in the region decided to intervene. Their objective was to revise the treaty of San Stefano, which had ended the Russian-Turkish war and in effect brought to and end Ottoman power in the Balkans.
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The instrument of western intervention was the Congress of Berlin, which was convened in June 1878. Otto Von Bismark, the German chancellor was the chairman. The British Prime Minister, Disraeli, along with his Foreign Secretary, Lord Salisbury, attended. The Congress achieved its objective, the San Stefano treaty was undone and Russian influence in the Balkans was neutralized.
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Balkan 1900

Balkan 1900

One of the means of doing this was to decide that Bosnia- Hercegovina, formerly a province of the Turkish Empire, was to be occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary. The Austrian Foreign Minister, Count Andrassy, predicted an easy occupation-"a company of soldiers and a brass band,’’ would be all that was necessary. It took three months of heavy fighting and over 200,000 troops to occupy the major towns but resistance was never over come in the mountains and countryside. The Austrian-Hungarian incursion into Bosnia-Hercegovina ended with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914. The cataclysm of the Great War of 1914-1918 followed.
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Less than 25 years later, Germany’s unprovoked invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 heralded another western intervention in that troubled nation. The German Wermacht was never able to conquer Yugoslavia but the Second World War inflicted a terrible and indelible legacy on the country that was later to be paid for in the bloodshed and violence of the 1990’s.
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Archduke Ferdinand

Yugoslavia, as with other Balkan nations, had never been afforded long enough periods of peace or immunity from outside interference in which to work out its own destiny. The nation never had time to foster and nourish democratic institutions and traditions. Yugoslavia’s ethnic differences have been frequently exploited by outside powers and used by them to divide the nation and tear it apart with ethnic hatred and violence.
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It is wrong to look upon the peoples of the Balkans as blood thirsty primitives who from time to time set about slaughtering each other. Throughout most of the history these ethnic groups-Serbs, Croats, Macedonians, Albanians, Slovenes, Bosnian Muslims, have lived at peace with one another. It is when they became pawns in the game of big power politics that their ethnic differences are exploited and violence among them ensues.
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Twice in this century Yugoslavia has been broken apart, and in both instances the breakup occurred either as a direct result of outside intervention or was precipitated by the actions of other states. In both instances the dissolution of the state was accompanied by ethnic cleansing and mutual massacre.

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