War Crimes--and the Crime of Dithering : Moral message won’t be enough to stop the carnage

In a famous recipe for rabbit stew, the first step is “Catch the rabbit.” Some may fault Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger, who on Wednesday demanded war crimes trials after the Balkan war, for forgetting that that war has not yet been won. Is the purpose of his demand to save Bosnian lives or to salve American consciences?

Against the cynicism of that kind of reaction, however, we find merit in Eagleburger’s call for naming names, listing criminal particulars and spelling out the long-term cost of aggression. “In waiting for the people of Serbia, if not their leaders, to come to their senses, we must make them understand that their country will remain alone, friendless and condemned to economic ruin and exclusion from the family of civilized nations for as long as they pursue the suicidal dream of a Greater Serbia,” the secretary said.

That statement would have been welcomed in many circles a year ago. But even now, and even if no other Western government seconds Eagleburger’s motion, his words may have real consequences, not least in the Serbian election scheduled for this Sunday. The fact that, after a long reluctance, the U.S. State Department, with clear support from President-elect Bill Clinton, is pushing hard for enforcement of a no-fly zone and for lifting of the arms embargo on Bosnia means that U.S. talk of war crimes trials may be heard as more than just talk.

The British reportedly fear that enforcing the no-fly zone will lead to reprisals against the U.N. peacekeepers and jeopardize relief shipments. Both the British and the French reject the U.S. proposal of a preemptive attack on Serb artillery around Sarajevo, citing the danger to civilians in addition to threats of reprisal against U.N. forces.

Nothing, unfortunately, could be clearer than that the U.N. peacekeepers are powerless even to guarantee relief shipments. The Bosnians repeatedly have asked for air attacks on Serb artillery. That would be better than further impotent dithering. And the Bosnians, who well know the risk to civilians, are willing to run it.

In the background of the latest round of Balkan-related diplomacy, however, is something new. At the just-concluded meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev shocked his hearers by saying, “The present government of Serbia can count on the support of Great Russia.” Kozyrev’s speech was a bravura display of political irony. Its point was that a “creeping coup” by the Russian right wing could return the West, including the Balkans, to a state of Cold War.

Historically, “Great Russia” and renascent Serbia were allies. After a Russian victory in one of the several Russo-Turkish wars, Serbia emerged in 1829 from 300 years as a province of the Ottoman Empire. The Russians and the Serbs write in the same script and practice the same Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Slobodan Milosevic is the one communist head of state not overthrown in Europe’s 1989 turning of the historical page. Where better than here, the Russian right might reason, to start turning the page back?

But the proper response to Kozyrev’s alarum is to rally round the Russian liberals, not to shrink before the prospect of a link between the Russian conservatives and the Serbs. The Russian reformers, like Bosnia-Herzegovina, need more than Western talk to survive. But the right kind of message ringing in “Great Russian” ears, like the right kind ringing in “Greater Serbian” ears, is nonetheless a necessary first step.