Hungarian American Coalition News, 1999 (8. évfolyam, 1-3. szám)
1999 / 3. szám
Hungarian American Coalition Memorandum on the Situation of Hungarians in Yugoslavia: Restore Autonomy in Vojvodina to Ensure Democracy and Durable Peace The United States and its NATO allies are committed to peace and stability in Central and South Eastern Europe. It is in their common interest and in the long-term national interests of the individual members of their alliance to resolve the conflicts in this region and to encourage the adoption of democratic values, including the ideal of majority rule with minority rights. The prospects for achieving these alliance interests and commitments are directly linked to the realization of the autonomy aspirations of Hungarians in northern Vojvodina. The airwar over Kosovo and over Yugoslavia, followed by NATO efforts to establish peace in the region, dramatically confronts the alliance with the limitations of the nation-state system which has been imposed on the region of East-Central and South Eastern Europe since the collapse of the multinational Ottoman and Czarist empires and the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy. It incontrovertibly demonstrates the shortcomings of the "structure of peace" that was imposed on this part of the world following World War I and World War II. The break-up of the Yugoslav Federation, Czechoslovakia and the USSR also indicate that the old order was flawed. Furthermore, as the ethno-national struggles throughout the former lands of Yugoslavia demonstrate, the process is not yet complete. Now that Milosevic's Yugoslavia has been militarily defeated and NATO forces are making it possible for Albanian refugees to return to their homes in Kosovo, an opportunity exists to establish comprehensive region-wide peace and stability. However, to do this, the US and its allies must address the remaining conflict zones in the region, including the fate of Hungarians in Vojvodina and the fate of Muslims in the Sandjak region of Serbia. In the peacemaking and the peacekeeping process that should follow, policy-makers and implementers must address the outstanding problems so that the "one crisis at a time" approach does not jeopardize the gains made. The aggressive nationalism of Milosevic and many other Serb leaders has been the major force behind the current confrontations. Although this is not new, but a legacy of the 19th and 20th centuries, it has become particularly acute under the current Yugoslav leadership. Milosevic has stoked the fires of ethnic hatred and a whole generation of followers have swallowed the Serb commitment to ethnic cleansing. This destabilization began when Tito’s finely crafted balance between the different ethno-national communities was challenged by Milosevic's attack, first, on the autonomy of Vojvodina in 1988, and then his attack on the autonomy of Kosovo in 1989. It is only in response to this threat of a Great-Serb "nation-state", that Slovenia and Croatia seceded from the federation, soon to be followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia as well. The Serb attempt to consolidate Yugoslavia under their control led first to the abortive war against Slovenia, then Croatia, and finally Bosnia-Herzegovina. While in the first two instances the Serbs came out as clear losers, in the latter case the verdict is not yet in, in spite of the Dayton Agreement. In the meantime the efforts to keep Kosovo and Montenegro within this losing enterprise have led to additional bloodshed and more and more "ethnic cleansing". It is in this context that NATO could no longer afford to remain a passive bystander. The punitive airstrikes begun on March 24th, 1999 were the beginning of NATO's effort to stop the political destabilization of the region by targeting the military and general coercive capabilities of the Milosevic-Seselj Greater Serbia conspiracy.
