ZAGREB ZAGREB, Nov 21 Hina) - A book written by the spokeswoman for the prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Florence Hartmann, entitled "Milosevic - Diagonal of a Madman", was presented at the
Croatian Institute of History in Zagreb on Thursday.
ZAGREB, Nov 21 Hina) - A book written by the spokeswoman for the
prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia, Florence Hartmann, entitled "Milosevic - Diagonal of a
Madman", was presented at the Croatian Institute of History in
Zagreb on Thursday. #L#
Hartmann, a former correspondent from Belgrade for the Paris-based
Le Monde daily, in her book presents a political portrait of the
former Yugoslav and Serbian president who, guided by the SANU
(Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences) Memorandum, attempted to
create an ethnically clean Serb state.
The SANU Memorandum opposed any modernisation of the former
Yugoslav state, demanded its centralisation, and once again raised
the Serbian question, said Latinka Perovic, the author of the
book's foreword. Perovic is a historian, a Serb opposition
politician, and one of the sharpest critics of Milosevic's regime.
Hartmann chronicles the tragic events in the region of the former
Yugoslavia at the end of the 20th century, and explains the
Milosevic phenomenon as an attempt to replace one (communist)
ideology with another (nationalist), thus opening the door to the
worst form of populism, Perovic said.
At that specific moment of searching for a new identity, Milosevic
emerged, she added. He was more the executor than the creator of a
programme which, Perovic said, he "received on a silver platter".
Perovic expressed fear that Milosevic's downfall did not mean the
end of his policy.
A Croatian minister in three governments, academician Davorin
Rudolf, said that Hartmann's book showed how much evil was caused by
totalitarianism, extremism and Milosevic's imperial politics. The
book gives an insight into the ambiguous talk of Milosevic's
politics and his morbid desire for power in which he did not shy from
sacrificing the closest associates, even mentors, he said.
A particularly intriguing section of Florence Hartmann's book is
the one in which she speaks about the Croatian government's share in
the war in the former Yugoslavia, where she doubts that an agreement
was not reached between Croatia's then President Franjo Tudjman and
Milosevic relating to the division of Bosnia when they met in
Karadjordjevo in 1991, Rudolf said.
Hartmann believes that Milosevic needed a partner to divide Bosnia
and found one in the late Tudjman, Rudolf stated. Milosevic agreed
to recognise Croatia's right to its integrity, sacrifice the Serbs
from the so-called Krajina region in Croatia in exchange for the
division of Bosnia, which was eventually achieved with the Dayton
agreements, he added.
In that context Hartmann presents the theory of an arranged war and
her book is a different view of the events in the region of the
former Yugoslavia, Rudolf said.
(hina) sp/ha sb