Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia

Notes

N O T E S Introduction 1. Out of deference to her wishes, I indicate this friend not by her name but by the unrelated initial M. She is concerned that the appearance of her name in my text might jeopardize her work with survivors. 2. My clear recollection of this significant detail, which stunned me at the time, is in contrast with M.'s memory of these documents, which she recalls as having no photographs attached. 3. Cherif Bassiouni has investigated all reports of such videotapes and has been unable to ascertain whether any actually exist (personal communica­ tion). Veronique Nahoum­Grappe agrees with me that, whether they exist in fact or simply as rumor, even the rumor of such tapes is a chilling aspect of this genocide. Theme i. Identity 1. Because I can find no satisfactory scientific definition of "ethnicity" (although it is often used as if it stood for a particular genetic pool), because I consider it a strictly cultural category, and because there is no genetic dif­ ferentiation between the "ethnicities" of the aggressors and the aggressed in this war, I put "ethnic" in quotes. 2. An influential defense of Croatian nationalism that emphasizes recent political history may be found in Finkielkraut. 3. For an excellent history of some of the cultural constitutions of binary­ color racism, see Wheeler. H5 146 NOTES TO T H E M E i 4. My brief historical sketch is drawn from numerous sources listed in Works Consulted, Foremost among these are Pirjevec, Riva and Ventura, and Weinberg and Wilsnack. I want to emphasize that there is nothing arcane or recherche about these sources; almost all are readily available in bookstores in Florence, for example. This is to say that anyone who cares to understand the available history of the Balkan peoples, which, like any other, will convey the perspectives of those who write it, may easily do so with market sources as well as with those available in libraries. 5. Most English­language commentators use the phrase, "Greater Serbia." Adnan Kemura, one of the leaders of the Bosnian­Herzegovinian commu­ nity in Rome, admonishes me, however, to use the more literal "Great Ser­ bia," as in "Great Britain," and I am happy to concede. 6. Philip Cohen, volunteer associate to the Bosnian­Herzegovinian Mis­ sion to the United Nations, explains: "As was true in Serbia, the Croatian puppet government was installed in power in 1941by the Axis occupiers. ... After Vladko Macek, the most popular leader in Croatia, had refused over­ tures from the Nazis to collaborate,. . . Hitler accepted Mussolini's sugges­ tion to install his protege Ante Pavelic to head the collaborationist Croatian government. .. . Pavelic had left Yugoslavia in 1929, the year Serbian King Aleksandar abolished all political parties, dissolved the assembly, and im­ posed a personal dictatorship. . .. The following year, Pavelic founded the extremist, nationalistic Ustasha movement, by organizing several hundred Croatian exiles in Fascist Italy, under the patronage and control of Musso­ lini. . . . The goal of the Ustashas was to achieve Croatian independence from Serbian rule, by any necessary means, including terror.... In 1934, King Aleksandarwas assassinated by a Macedonian, in a conspiracy linked to Italy and the Ustashas.. .. "Ustasha, therefore, was an extremist, ultranationalist organization com­ mitted to the realization of a Croatian state independent of Serbian rule, by any means, including the use of terror. Ustasha existed in exile in fascist Italy for more than a decade under the sponsorship and control of Mussolini, un­ til their leader Ante Pavelic was installed to power by Hitler at Mussolini's suggestion. Most important, however, and generally overlooked, Ustasha does not have its roots in Croatia proper, nor did Ustasha obtain significant support from Croatia proper. Ustasha was rooted in western Herzegovina, an isolated, mountainous region generally populated by poorly educated, impoverished ethnic Croats. Sixty percent of Ustasha and most of the lead­ ership came from here. N O T E S TO T H E M E i 147 "Even until 1941, Ustasha did not incorporate ideological anti­Semitism (see the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust). Ustasha simply wanted independence so passionately that no price was too great. If their benefactors (the Nazis) wanted the Jews as the price of doing business, the Ustashas (as you see, I use this anglicized plural form) were ready to deliver them. "It is noteworthy that Mate Boban and his followers from western Herze­ govina display much of the...