Stop the Protracted Sulk

Misha Glenny, Central European correspondent of the BBC, may shock readers used to hearing only of Croatian victims of Serbian aggression. He writes, in the Jan. 30 New York Review of Books:

“Serbian civilians in Croatia face serious threats to their lives every day. . . . Those who rightly denounce the Belgrade regime for its aggression should be concerned about aggression against the Serbs in Croatia as well.”

Glenny’s article, dated Jan. 3, has been overtaken by two events. First, on Jan. 2 the Croatian National Guard, the Yugoslav National Army and, more surprisingly, the independent Serbian militia led by Milan Babic agreed to a U.N. plan calling for all combatants, Croatian as well as Serbian, to withdraw from the territory they had been fighting over. The vanguard of a U.N. peacekeeping force moved in, and a much larger force is expected to follow. Second, on Jan. 15, more than two dozen European nations, following the lead of the European Community, recognized Croatia and Slovenia as independent states.

In one regard, however, Glenny’s grimly specific account remains current. While placing more blame for Yugoslavia’s downward spiral into violence on Serbia than on Croatia, he tells in unprecedented detail the story of Croatian revenge on Serbian civilians. Had the choice been his, Glenny would have withheld diplomatic recognition until human rights guarantees were in place and a comprehensive, pan-Yugoslav agreement had been reached.

On that last point, we disagree. The EC decision, following Germany’s lead, to offer diplomatic recognition to any Yugoslav republic requesting it has strengthened the U.N. peace mission. And internal pressure for human rights guarantees within Croatia will be more effectively brought by a European Community that can no longer be accused of standing by while Croatia is hacked to pieces.

That said, the decision by France and Britain to extend recognition to Croatia but send no ambassador until the rights situation improves has much to recommend it. The United States, still officially recognizing the old, defunct Yugoslavia, is in danger of alienating key allies by a policy that begins to resemble a protracted sulk. We must seek justice for Serbs no less than for Croats, but by acting in concert with our allies, not by waiting grandly for them to act in concert with us.