yugoslavias implosion

Serbs must constitute a sound basis for the beginning of future peace.
They want national unification with their national brothers in Serbia
and Montenegro.” He believed that the “time has come for us to
present our objectives publicly at an appropriate venue appointed by
history—a session of representatives of all four Serb parliaments.” 142
The Serbian ideologues had plenty of reason to be satisfied with
the developments in Bosnia once it became clear that the international
mediators aimed for its ethnic division. In the early stage of
the war, the United States treated the issue as a European affair, but
the European Community (it did not become the European Union
until 1995) was divided in how to respond to the unfolding crisis in
Yugoslavia. Even if the members of the ec could have reached a
consensus and opted for robust intervention, the ec’s foreign policy
machinery was so weak as to have made it almost impossible to stage
an effective military operation. The West’s ambivalence was apparent
to all local actors, including Milošević, who felt he had a free
hand to act as he wished. As they watched events unfold, many in the
West came to the conclusion that the only solution possible should be
based on ethnic principles, that is, on separation and division, just as
the Serbian ideologues had planned.
Although he was sacked at the height of the Bosnian war for
undermining the power of Slobodan Milošević, Ćosić stuck to his
objectives. As Milošević became internationally isolated after revelations
of mass crimes and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, Ćosić became a
key interlocutor for the international community. 143 He was regarded
as wielding influence especially among the Bosnian Serbs. Ćosić
focused on the necessity of a division of Bosnia, being “convinced
that the break-up of Yugoslavia necessitated the break-up of Bosnia.”
He made no secret of the fact that he had played a prominent role in
organizing the Bosnian Serbs and been in close liaison with Radovan
142 Večernje novosti, April 29, 1993 .
143 None of the major international mediators who visited Belgrade failed to see Dobrica Ćosić .
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