Perception and Reality in the Modern Yugoslav Conflict: Myth, Falsehood and Deceit 1991-1995

by O'Shea; Brendan

• ISBN13: 9780415357050
• ISBN10: 0415357055
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

In this book, the author has tried bridge the gap between the common perception of the Yugoslav conflict as portrayed in the media and the actual grim reality with which he was dealing as an EU monitor on the ground. Drawing on original material from both UN and ECMM sources, he has identified the true origin of Former Yugoslavia's wars of dissolution, and critically examines the program of violence which erupted in 1991 and eventually culminated in 1995 in the vicious dismemberment of a sovereign federal republic with seat at the United Nations. In doing so, he highlights the duplicitous behavior of all parties to the conflict; the double standards employed throughout by the United States in its foreign policy; the lengths to which the Sarajevo government manipulated the international media to promote a "victim" status; the contempt in which UN peace-keepers were ultimately held by all sides; and the manner in which Radovan Karadzic was sacrificed at the altar of political expediency, when the real culpritswere Slobodan Milosevic and his acolyte, General Ratko Mladic. This book, the first by an EU Monitor with actual experience of the conflict, tells the real story of the modern Yugoslav conflict, 1991-1995.

Table of Contents

The main protagonists	ix
Abbreviations	xii
Introduction	1	(8)
1 1991	9	(21)
The Karadjordjevo meeting	9	(1)
Violence erupts	10	(2)
Declarations of independence	12	(2)
The quest for recognition	14	(1)
The Brioni Agreement	15	(1)
War in Croatia	16	(1)
Worthless agreements	17	(1)
Demonising the Serbs	18	(1)
Enter Ratko Mladic	18	(1)
A divided European response	19	(1)
Trouble looms in Bosnia	20	(1)
Lord Carrington takes control	21	(1)
Vukovar falls	22	(2)
Dubrovnik	24	(1)
Recognition	25	(5)
2 1992	30	(33)
The Vance plan	30	(1)
More designs on partition	31	(2)
Violence erupts in Sarajevo	33	(1)
The Cutilherio plan	34	(1)
Marching for peace	35	(2)
The bread queue massacre	37	(3)
Ethnic cleansing	40	(3)
The prison camps	43	(4)
Kovacevic and Kozarac	47	(1)
Karadzic's culpability	48	(1)
International reaction to the prison camps	49	(13)
Annex A 59 Annex B 60 Annex C	62	(1)
3 1993	63	(44)
The Vance–Owen Peace Plan	63	(5)
Reaction by the UN Security Council	68	(2)
Airdrops and lies	70	(2)
Abusing humanitarian aid	72	(1)
The first siege of Srebrenica	73	(2)
The peace process rolls on	75	(3)
Srebrenica becomes a 'safe area'	78	(2)
Ahmici	80	(2)
Division amongst the Serbs	82	(3)
Something must be done	85	(1)
Advent of a war crimes tribunal	86	(2)
A culture of deceit	88	(6)
Fikret Abdic	94	(5)
Talking in Geneva	99	(3)
Americares	102	(5)
4 1994	107	(50)
The market square bomb	107	(2)
The Federation begins	109	(2)
Gorazde	111	(5)
The Contact Group	116	(4)
NATO strikes back	120	(1)
Serb against Serb	121	(3)
Bihac	124	(4)
Deception and reality	128	(2)
Strange solutions	130	(3)
Turanj and Batnoga	133	(2)
Misery for the refugees	135	(3)
Karadzic makes an offer	138	(1)
Dudakovic attacks southwards	139	(2)
UNPROFOR in chaos	141	(2)
Boutros-Ghali in Sarajevo	143	(3)
The Economic Agreement and the Z4 plan	146	(1)
Bangladesh pays a heavy price	147	(1)
Jimmy Carter goes to Sarajevo	148	(6)
Fighting in Bihac	154	(3)
5 1995	157	(44)
Croatia's attitude to UNPROFOR	157	(1)
The international response	158	(2)
Preparations for war	160	(1)
Flights over Tuzla	161	(5)
Reality in Bihac	166	(1)
New arrangements	167	(3)
End of the COHA	170	(3)
Unification of the Serbs	173	(4)
Tensions rise between Knin and Zagreb	177	(3)
Trouble on the roads	180	(1)
Croatia launches a special police action	181	(7)
Leaderless in Knin	188	(5)
The fall of Srebrenica	193	(2)
A storm blows through Krajina	195	(6)
6 The End State	201	(11)
Notes	212	(21)
Select bibliography	233	(2)
Index	235