ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...
ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...
ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...
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would reverse all of the results of the ethnic cleansing that the Serbs had perpetrated. But<br />
then in addition, many of the Serbs were shocked to see how the boundaries were drawn<br />
between the Serb <strong>and</strong> the Federation portions of Bosnia, <strong>and</strong> also of Sarajevo which was<br />
divided into sectors. In effect, some Serbs found that they would be living in Muslimcontrolled<br />
areas. The person who reportedly passed out was a rather affluent Bosnian<br />
Serb who suddenly learned that his entire estate would be in a Muslim rather than Serb<br />
part of Sarajevo. As I mentioned be<strong>for</strong>e, Milosevic could agree to such terms because he<br />
was not really a Serb nationalist. He did not care that much about Serbs. He cared about<br />
Milosevic. He thought that by helping to conclude an agreement at Dayton his past<br />
actions would be <strong>for</strong>gotten <strong>and</strong> he would gain legitimacy <strong>and</strong> respect. But he was wrong.<br />
Kosovo was still outst<strong>and</strong>ing, <strong>and</strong> it would prove to be his downfall.<br />
Q: Was he still afraid at Dayton that Serbs might be bombed by the U.S.? Was that also a<br />
motivation?<br />
PERINA: Perhaps it was. Certainly bombing was never off the table. But this reminds me<br />
of another anecdote about the technical support we had at Dayton from the military,<br />
which was really impressive. The process of deciding the borders between Republika<br />
Srpska <strong>and</strong> the Federation was one of the hardest parts of the negotiation. It amounted to<br />
sitting down <strong>and</strong> dividing a country on maps, deciding which side gets this village <strong>and</strong><br />
that road. Numerous disputes came up. In one example, the disposition of a country road<br />
depended on whether it was passable in the winter or not, <strong>and</strong> there was an argument on<br />
how wide it actually was. Well, the U.S. had developed a wonderful way to deal with<br />
these disputes. We had virtually all of Bosnia on aerial film. There was a room set up at<br />
Dayton with several very large TV screens. In the case of this road, <strong>for</strong> example, we<br />
could go to this room, ask the technicians to find the road, <strong>and</strong> literally fly over it, even<br />
changing altitude within a certain range. The delegations that saw this technology were<br />
really amazed. One day, Holbrooke found a pretext to take Milosevic into this room <strong>and</strong><br />
show him how it worked. Milosevic was also amazed. But, of course, the film had not<br />
been put together <strong>for</strong> the purpose of helping the Dayton negotiations. It had been put<br />
together by our military <strong>for</strong> the purpose of possible air strikes within Bosnia. Holbrooke<br />
knew this, <strong>and</strong> he intentionally wanted to remind Milosevic of it. I am confident<br />
Milosevic understood <strong>and</strong> got the message. It was in fact very impressive technology <strong>for</strong><br />
its time. Nowadays, of course, it might not be any more impressive than Google Earth.<br />
Q: Did you find yourself getting sympathetic to the Serbs after all the time you spent with<br />
them? You understood their concerns <strong>and</strong> viewpoints, after all.<br />
PERINA: I found Milosevic very interesting but I would not say I grew more sympathetic<br />
to him. On the contrary, as we discussed earlier, the more I knew him the more I<br />
recognized how strange he was <strong>and</strong> what a perverse view of the world he had. With him,<br />
the first impression was better than subsequent ones. But I would say that over my entire<br />
tour in Belgrade I grew more sympathetic to the Serb people. They had acquired an<br />
extremely negative image in the West as almost a nation of rapists <strong>and</strong> war criminals.<br />
This was unfair. I came to know many, many good <strong>and</strong> courageous Serbs who were as<br />
opposed to Milosevic, Mladic <strong>and</strong> Karadzic as anyone in the West. They were paying the<br />
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