ABSTRACT: A severe reprimand against the Europe of indifference and selfishness, which is incapable of opposing the barbarity of the Nazism and communism in power in Serbia today. If Pannella compared Europe's silence on Croatia to Münich's surrender to Nazism, for Bosnia we can say we are surrendering to Auschwitz. By proclaiming it would never intervene, Europe has given the Bosnian Serbs the right to kill, rape and slaughter. With the Vance-Owen plan, the West will be called to guarantee the Serbian dominion: "we would contradict our principles, we would present ourselves as an extraneous force, hostile to all, friend to none". Remembering the fact that Europe was born as a moral unity with the challenge against Nazism and communism, the author severely criticizes the fact that in Bosnia and Serbia today, where Nazism and communism are ruling together, Europe is answering by sending humanitarian relief: "This is the end of the Europe motivated as a civilization and culture, of the Europe as secularized Ch

ristianity, but Christianity nonetheless. This is the reprise of the old Europe of nations...". "The Christianity that rose again in Europe to struggle against Nazism and to resist communism, is dying a second time in Sarajevo".

(LA REPUBBLICA, April 11, 1993)

We are celebrating the Easter liturgy as a timeless event, in which nothing occurs and all is memory. And in these days we can see to what extent Easter - the very basis of the Western culture - is dead inside us. And yet, it is Easter that gave us the idea of the future that achieves the most intimate wishes. Easter has taught us that human history can make sense; that it can have a purpose and an end. The representatives of the Church are afraid of thinking, and repeat meaningless things; the men of culture and science no longer believe in fate. At the most, they consider it is a banal, second-class event to be accepted passively. And yet, history is emerging with urgency these days, with all the more strength in that we are less willing to listen to it.

There is a crucifix that won't rise from the dead at Easter 1993 - the people of Bosnia. It is a year in which we see plagues, we see thorns penetrate the flesh, we hear the agony of violence and rape.

Marco Pannella aptly compared the European silence on Croatia to Münich's surrender to Nazism. But in Bosnia it is much worse: we have surrendered to Nazism not in the face of the annexation of the Sudeten, but in front of Auschwitz. By proclaiming that Europe would never intervene, we have given the Bosnian Serbs the right to shoot on the crowds, to shoot in the streets, to rape, to slaughter. And what's more, for humanitarian reasons, we order the Muslims to leave the territories which the Serbs want for themselves, and which EC and UN mediators have assigned to the Muslims. In the name of humanitarian reasons, we are carrying out "ethnic cleansing" ourselves.

Europe escapes the reality, but remains Cartesian in terms of reason. The mediators' plan provides for the division of Bosnia into ten areas, which none of the parts recognizes as legitimate. The plan is typical of the E.C. If the Bosnian Serbs accept it, the E.C., NATO and the U.N. will be called to guarantee the Serbian control of the newly conquered territories and to oppose the Muslims' partisan resistance. A paradoxical situation: we would contradict our principles, we would present ourselves as an extraneous force, enemy of all, friends to none. The two solutions that were initially proposed (the air and naval reaction when the snipers started shooting on Sarajevo, the abolition of the arms embargo for the attacked Bosnian Muslims) would have been clear in principle but limited in terms of intervention. Intervening now to defend the Vance-Owen plan is absurd, morally speaking, unreasonable, politically speaking, and unfeasible in military terms. However, we cannot forget that not far from Bosnia is Kos

ovo, which is militarily controlled by the Serbs. This country is a concentration camp: gulags and lagers - the two cultures merge here. Sooner or later, Kosovo will explode, and the Serbs will trigger the operation they have long been threatening.

Europe was born as a moral unity with the challenge to Nazism and communism. Today in Bosnia and Serbia, Nazism and communism are in power together. Europe reacts by sending humanitarian relief. This is the end of the Europe motivated as a civilization and a culture. The end of Europe as a secularized Christianity, but as a Christianity nonetheless. It is the reprise of the old Europe of nations: France and Britain versus Germany; protestants versus Catholics, and so on. The United States had saved us from the old demons, but today these have reappeared. And even the United States cannot be the universal champion of democracy. Milosevic can thank Clinton and his moderation; Hitler could not do the same with Roosevelt.

We had hoped in a Europe which had risen as an ideal measure, and we are confronted with a Europe of indifference and of collective selfishness. As in 1939, this is the Europe of pacifism and cowardice, which cannot oppose courage versus despair, force versus violence. This is not the Europe of Churchill and De Gaulle; this is the Europe of Major and Mitterrand, which is concerned about appearances and makes no effort to restrain the power of evil and unlimited violence. The Christianity risen in the Europe that fought against Nazism and resisted communism is dying once again in Sarajevo. Two years ago, who would have imagined that 1993 would have been like 1914? Providence or fate, history reveals its secret aspect in unexpected details, in apparently meaningless coincidences. "The devil is in the details, but details are also the sign of a mysterious justice".

"Christ, why have you forsaken us?" - wrote Unamuno confronted with De Rivera's Spain. Today, faced to a planned and deliberate genocide, how can we avoid saying that Christ remains on the cross? Easter is a meaningless word, if it is experienced as an innocent springtime myth, if it loses the meaning of the relevance and dramatic quality of history. The place of the resurrection is the same in which Christ was crucified. The resurrection occurs only in this place. And if it doesn't take place in this place, then there is no resurrection. This place is Bosnia in 1933. The place of unlimited violence lies between the limit of strength and the abyss of fear.

GIANNI BAGET BOZZO