yugoslavias implosion

Because redrawing borders, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
could not be achieved by voluntary resettlement, drastic measures
including intimidation, expulsion and mass killings of Muslims
were used to “liberate” imagined Serbian ethnic territories and
attach them to Serbia. In the heady days of building an ethnic state,
Velibor Ostojić, president of the Serbian Democratic Party executive
committee, said, “Every corner of Serb land and Serbs are a heavenly
wonder, an inspiration and an example to all peoples and countries,
in particular to those that have lost democracy in the name of
democracy.” 137
The genocide of the Muslims was carried out on the premise that
the Muslims were preparing a genocide of the Serbs. It was stressed
by Serbian nationalists that the “secessionist struggle of the Bosnia
and Herzegovina Muslims for the creation of a Muslim state draws
its impulse first from the Islamic way of life, which has no points in
common with European civilization, then from the Islamic centers
and Islamic fundamentalist forces bent on breaking up the former
sfry.” 138 This thesis banked on sympathy from a Europe that was not
quite sure what to make of Muslims. Nada Todorov blamed Islamization
and its manifestations as “the root of evil” pointing out that
tales such as those contained in The Book of One Thousand and One
Nights that glorify Islam at the expense of other religions “accordingly
influence the behavior of children and others in regions under
strong Islamic influence.” According to Todorov, ”Islam looks down
on other religions, especially on Orthodoxy. … The messages stay
embedded in the consciousness or the subconsciousness.” 139
That a colossal ethnic engineering project was afoot was borne
out by Ćosić: “Tuđman and I have agreed that it would be sensible
and humane for states to lend a hand in organized population
137 Borba, March 22, 1994 .
138 Nada Todorov, Vojska, April 8, 1993
139 Ibid . .
113
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