Palluxo

Serbia and Serb Nazism in Yugoslavia

By: Eric Margolis, Toronto

Saturday, 04 July 2009 17:48

Serb slav nazism began around 1900 and flourished in the 1920’s after
the creation of unstable, multi-ethnic Yugoslavia. Numerous
influential Serb writers and academics, notably Vaso Cubrilovic and
Radivoje Pesic, proclaimed Serbs racial supermen, and Serbia the true
cradle of western civilization. .
Serb nazis urged ethnic cleansing of all `racially inferior’
Hungarians, Croats, Jews, Albanians, Catholics and Muslims from a
purified Greater Serbia, stretching from Italy to the Aegean. Some
elements of the Serb Orthodox Church eagerly cooperated – and still do
– with these ideas.
Mother Theresa, an Albanian from southern Yugoslavia, ended up in
Calcutta because her family was driven from its home by Serb nazis in
the 192O’s during a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Back then, as now,
Serb nazis warned of the fertility of non-Serb women, and called for
the mass expulsion, extermination or sterilization of `racial
inferiors.’
The Serb slavo-nazi, Cubrilovic, wrote, `If Germany could deport tens
of thousands of Jews, the expulsion of a few hundreds of thousands of
Albanians would not lead to a world war.’ Interestingly, his remark
mirrors Hitler’s observation that since the world ignored the genocide
of Armenians during World War I, it would react similarly to his
planned extermination of Jews.
Milosevic rekindled Serb nazism after Tito had suppressed it for two
decades. Serb paramilitary gangsters, like Arkan and Seselj, who
spearheaded ethnic cleansing and mass murder, are direct descendants
of Hitler’s brownshirt thugs. The Serb army – shades of the SS- was
ordered to ethnically cleanse Bosnia of `Muslim filth’ on a `sacred
historic mission for the Motherland.’
Serb nazis now denounce Milosevic for failing to accomplish this
goal. A significant part of the opposition is made up of nazis, or
rightwing extremists. Unless ripped out by the roots, nazism may
continue its grip on Serbia.
Nazism and fascism were thoroughly excised from Germany, Italy and
Japan. It’s time to do the same in Serbia to the last nest of nazis in
Europe. Hopefully, democratic Serbs – -Serbia’s forgotten majority –
will accomplish this long-overdue task. They will need a great deal of
active support from Europe -particularly when Britain and Greece
finally halt their shameful support of Serb extremists.
Canada’s demands this week that capture and prosecution of Bosnian
Serb war criminals be vigorously pursued – by force, if necessary –
are overdue and welcome. Canada is right to show zero tolerance to
nazis like Karadzic and Mladic. You don’t fight nazism by trying 85
year-old men, You do it by arresting and prosecuting today’s
reincarnated nazis in the Balkans.
[Eric Margolis is a syndicated foreign affairs columnist and
broadcaster based in Toronto, Canada.]