Subject: The Midstream on the Balkans
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stopping the war in yugoslavia
(by yohanan ramati)*
the civil war in yugoslavia continues, with untold suffering
on all sides. the media report the suffering of the muslims in
gruesome detail. the suffering of croats at muslim hands gets
little attention. the suffering of the serbs is ignored. so it
will surprise large sections of the american public that some
600.000 refugees from croatia and bosnia have sought refuge in a
beleaguered serbia deprived of food and fuel by u.n. dictate
during this deadly winter.
the media in the western world, the muslim world and israel
treat us to a regular dose of tearjerking hate propaganda. we see
women and children in sarajevo - the muslim quarters of sarajevo
- with terrible wounds seeping blood and shattered limbs, to the
accompaniment of hells and small arms fire. we do not see the
killing and maiming of serb women and children by muslim fire in
bosnia or by croat fire in croatia. and when croat women and
children are brutally murdered by muslims, or vice-versa, the
media response is sporadic and no conclusions are drawn.
this oranized anti-serb and pro-muslim propaganda should
cause anyone believing in democracy and free speech serious
concern. it recalls hitler's propaganda against the allies in
world war ii. facts are twisted and, when inconvenient,
disregarded. the selectivity in reporting and comment is far too
blatant to be accidental. the western government do not control
their media sufficiently to be responsible for it. so who is? who
is bankrolling and masterminding this vast effort to destroy a
people the united states, england and france have no reason to
hate in order to establish a second muslim state in a balkan
province where the muslims are a minority?
part of the answer is provided by a revealing interview by
mr. james harff (director of ruder & finn global public affairs)
given to m.jacques merlino in paris in october 1993. ruder & finn
are a public relations company, currently registered as foreign
agents. here are some of harffs statements, alightly abridged.
harff: for 18 months, we have been working for the republic
of croatia and bosnia-herzegovina, as well as for the opposition
in kosovo. throughout this period, we had many successes, giving
us a formidable international image. we intend to take advantage
of this and develop commercial agreements with these countries.
speed is vital, because items favourable to us must be settled in
public opinion. the first statement counts. the retractions have
no effect.
merlino: how often do you intervene?
harff: quantity is not important. you have to intervene at
the right time with the right person. from june to september, we
organized 30 meetings with the main press agencies, as well as
meetings between bosnian officials and al gore, lawrence
eagleburger and 10 influential senators, among them george
mitchell and robert dole. we also sent out 13 exclusive new
items, 37 last-minute faxes, 17 official letters and eight
official reports. we placed 20 telephone calls to white house
staff, 20 senators, and close to 100 to journalists, editors,
newscasters and other influential people in the media.
merlino: what achievement were you most proud of?
harff: to have managed to put jewish opinion on our side.
this was a sensitive matter, as the dossier was dangerous looked
at from this angle. president tudjman (of croatia) was very
careless in his book wastelands of historical reality. reading
his writings, one could accuse him of antisemitism. in bosnia,
the situation was no better: president izetbegovic strongly
supported the creation of a fundamentalist islamic state (there)
in his book the islamic declaration. besides the croatian and
bosnian past was marked by a real and cruel antisemitism. tens of
thousands of jews perished in croatian camps. so there was every
reason for intellectuals and jewish organizations to be hostile
toward the croats and the bosnians. our challenge was to reverse
this attitude. and we have succeeded masterfully.
at the beginning of july 1992, new york newsday came out
with the affair of (serb) concentration camps. we jumped at the
opportunity immediately. we outwitted three big jewish
organizations - the b'nai b'rith anti defamation league, the
american jewish committee and the american jewish congress. in
august we suggested that they publish an advertisement in the new
york times and organize demonstrations outside the united
nations.
that was a tremendous coup. when the jewish organizations
entered the game on the side of the (muslim) bosnians, we could
promptly equate the serbs with the nazis in the public mind.
nobody understood what was happening in yugoslavia. the great
majority of americans were probably asking themselves in which
african country bosnia was situated. but by a single move, we
were able to present a simple story of good guys and bad guys,
which would hereafter play itself. we won by targeting the jewish
audience. almost immediately there was a clear change of language
in the press, with the use of words with high emotional content
such as "ethnic cleansing," "concentration camps," etc., which
evoked images of nazi germany and the gas chambers of auschwitz.
the emotional charge was so powerful nobody could go against it.
merlino: but when you did all this, you had no proof that
what you said was true. you only had the article in newsday!
harff: our work is not to verify information. we are not
equipped for that. our work is to accelerate the circulation of
information favourable to us, to aim at judiciously chosen
targets. we did not confirm the existence of death camps in
bosnia, we just made it known that newsday affirmed it.
merlino: are you aware that you that you took on a grave
responsibility?
harff: we are professionals. we had a job to do and we did
it. we are not paid to be moral.
* * *
the american jewish organizations and leaders outwitted by
ruder & finn can now pat themselves on the back. they have played
a major role in gaining the world's sympathy for antisemitic
regimes in yugoslavia. they are "politically correct".
one small fact remains to be determined: who paid ruder &
finn? it seems unlikely that the governments of bosnia-
herzegovina and croatia could raise the money required. are we
dealing here with arab money? with the money of u.s. oil
companies operating in the arab states? with the money of
international banks?
can anybody hire ruder & finn? an israeli who was interested
in this subject when the likud was in power was told by a public
relations company that it would work for the government of israel
only if it changed some of its policies. the well-orchestrated
and well-engineered demonization of the serbs is a warning so all
jews who want israel to continue to exist. israel can become a
target.
why are muslim states (unless attacked by other muslims)
usually portrayed as innocent victims of aggression? why are the
outrages they commit ignored or condoned? is it because media
editors, reporters and commentators in democratic states are
afraid to risk the wrath of financiers and oil interests
sponsoring them? is democratic public opinion controlled by the
few for their own profit?
for israelis (and some other people usually at the receiving
end of similar machinations and hate propaganda, like the
maronite christians of lebanon or the whites and the zulus of
south africa) the answer to this question - i.e. the nature and
motives of the perpetrators - could be a matter of life and
death. those deliberately promoting radical islam in europe will
promote radicalism and islam everywhere. and the western partners
in this venture believe in the power of money far too much to
realize that they are creating a menace that will eventually
eliminate them too.
the sanctions against serbia are a disgrace to humanity.
orthodox serbs were the majority in bosnia-herzegovina before the
serb decimation at the hands of the croat ustashis and the muslim
supporters of hitler in world war ii, and still populated more
than half of bosnia-herzegovina before the current fighting
began. the muslims occupied less territory despite being a larger
percentage of the population (48 percent as against 35 percent)
as they were concentrated chiefly in urban areas. to fight in
order to escape to rule of an islamic fundamentalist despot like
izetbegovic in a country that belonged to you and was taken away
by the fiat of foreigners is the natural reaction of any people
with an instinct for national survival. to continue fighting
despite sanctions imposed by a cynical "international community"
concerned with business interest - not justice - is a badge of
honor.
no sanctions were imposed on russia when it intervened to
remove the nationalist gamsakhurdia regime in georgia and turn
georgia into a pliable puppet state after a bloody civil war. no
sanctions were imposed on syria for swallowing lebanon and
destroying the christian power structure there, supplanting it
with a coalition of radicals and islamic fundamentalists. no
sanctions were imposed on egypt for invading and annexing part of
sudan in 1993 (very few know this because the world's press and
media ignored the egyptian invasion, and the u.n. refused to
debate sudan's complaints). indeed, in 1993 hundreds of thousands
of people were killed in various parts of asia, africa, latin
america and ex-soviet europe without sanctions even being
considered. seemingly, the "international community" is thought
with radical states only when oil interests are threatened, as in
the case of iraq in 1990.
but these are not the only reasons why the sanctions on
serbia are a disgrace. they are also a disgrace because they are
the main reason why the civil war in yugoslavia has not ended.
the endless meetings between serb, croat, and bosnian muslim
representatives continue because the sanctions depriving the
population of serbia of food, medicines and fuel also deprive
izetbegovic of a reason to stop fighting and reach agreement with
the others. the muslims - not the others - keep rejecting
proposals made to divide bosnia, which would put under muslim
rule large areas currently controlled by serbs. some of these
proposals were endorsed by outside factors responsible for
peacemaking in yugoslavia, but even this did not help.
izetbegovic hopes the serbs will be broken by the u.n. embargo,
so why make peace with them?
he could prove right. but it may take more than the embargo.
ruder & finn and the equivocations of democratic politicians and
journalists - among them some jews - to break the spirit of a
proud people. ("the midstream", new york, april, 1994)
* yohanan ramati is director of the jerusalem institute for
western defense.
