Vancouver Province
for May 21, 1999

We shouldn’t be so quick deciding who’s the good guy and who’s the bad in the Balkans any more than we should in Northern Ireland. Indeed the two situations mirror one another, about which more in a moment.

Canada seems intent on following the lead of the United States and Britain in sanctifying the Kosovars and demonizing Serbia. There are in fact few saints in either camp and enough devils on both sides to go around. It’s true that 90% of Kosovo is made up of Albanians but that no more makes it a separate state than 80% French in Quebec makes it a separate country. Moreover, though Albanians have been a majority in Kosovo for perhaps 100 years, it’s also been home to Serbs and part of Yugoslavia since World War I (except during World War II when it was part of Greater Albania, thanks to the Italian occupation.) And ethnic cleansing, while now the nasty habit of Serbia, was hardly invented by them. If the Kosovo Liberation Army – which we seem bent on supporting – wins the day you can be sure that there’ll be damned few Serbs left in Kosovo.

The whole of the Balkans is an emulsion; that is to say the people are suspended as neighbours within political boundaries but they’ll never become a true mixture. At least not for generations to come.

Ireland, though nowhere near as complicated as the linguistic, religious and ethnic mess of the Balkans nevertheless has its own population emulsions, especially in the North.

I remember having a wonderful fishing guide in Northern Ireland a few years ago. A Protestant and most enthusiastic about the peace process and certainly no redneck. At least so it appeared.

"Ivan", I asked him, "if Protestants are not rednecks, why did they get dressed up in funny clothes and march around the walls of Londonderry last Sunday taunting Catholics?"

Ivan’s face changed to dead serious. "Ah now", he said, ye’d not be stoppin’ the byes having a bit o’ fun on the way to church, would you?"

Ivan grew up taunting Catholics and saw no connection between that and the "troubles."

Two of the most despicable men in the world, Ian Paisley and Slobadan Milosevic are nevertheless dead right in how they assess the peace process in their countries.

How so?

The Reverend Paisley says that the logical end of the day scenario for the Irish peace talks is a united Ireland under Dublin rule – which most Protestants oppose and that the process itself is a self fulfilling prophecy.

Milosevic says that the logical end of the day scenario for the Rambouillet "agreement" is an independent Kosovo.

To many, of course, a united Ireland under Dublin is a great idea – but for several hundred thousand others it’s an issue to go to the barricades over. Similarly, to many an independent Kosovo would be a marvelous result but a great many see it as a prescription for disaster leading to a highly bellicose united Albania.

Let me make clear that I’m not saying that Paisley and Milosevic are nice people (they distinctly are not) and I’m not saying the keeping Kosovo inside Yugoslavia or putting Northern Ireland inside a united Ireland are desirable results. I’m simply saying that we’ve allowed ourselves to be duped by the propaganda of the self-styled "white hats" in the disputes. There are thugs and murderers on both sides of the borders dividing Ireland and dividing Serbia from Kosovo. To offer our support on the basis that they are all white hats in Kosovo and black hats in Serbia is madness.

What must be attained is not victory, but relative peace while the internal struggle continues. When both sides to a dispute are both wrong and right it is the duty of the international community to keep them from slitting each other’s throats, not to bomb hell out of one of them.

The situation in Ireland is much healthier than in the Balkans because the Irish, with considerable help from Britain and the United States, are trying to let time pass as peacefully as possible to give both sides ample opportunity to work out solutions. In the Balkans, however, we’ve been deluded into believing that we are on the side of absolutely right against the unquestionably wrong and for that reason if no other, we will fail in our efforts to bring peace.

Indeed, we will just make things worse.