Slobodan Milosevic
Now that NATO has parted the blood-red sea that threatened to annihilate the people of Kosovo, there appears to be a burgeoning sense of resolve to have President Slobodan Milosevic relinquish his reign of terror (June 30). While I applaud the citizens of Yugoslavia for their resolve, I regard Milosevic not as the poison, but as the purveyor of the poison that wiped out so many innocent people. The real poison is the spirit of nationalism--the same spirit that led Nazis to employ the “final solution,” in which an estimated 6 million Jews were killed along with such “enemies of the Reich” as Slavs, Gypsies, the mentally and physically ill and Christians.
It is the exaltation of one nation as preeminent above all others and the brazen disregard for the inherent value and rights of the persona non grata that the world must vehemently oppose. I believe that the spirit of international brotherhood is stronger than the spirit of nationalism and will ultimately survive the tumultuous course of human history, stained with the innocent blood of the so-called “weaker” species. Getting rid of Milosevic is an admirable first step, but he is a mere drop in the blood-red sea of nationalism.
BRUCE L. THIESSEN
Sacramento
*
Are other NATO countries going to contribute toward the $5 million offered by our State Department for the arrest and conviction of Milosevic and other suspects? How about Franjo Tudjman, Croatian president? His army cutthroats smashed children’s skulls, machine-gunned whole families and threw grenades through the windows of Muslim homes, burning families alive.
Then there is Bosnia’s Alija Izetbegovic, Muslim member of the three-person presidency. Amnesty International accused his Muslim troops of firing on his own people in bread and food lines in 1992 and 1995 in an effort to draw international condemnation of the Serbs.
In three years, U.N. experts have recovered the remains of some 300 bodies at Srebrenica. Where are those 7,000 alleged massacred here by the Serbs?
VAL RODRIGUEZ
Signal Hill
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
