which he compares Robert E. Lee with Prince Lazar (therndoomed hero of Kosovo) and the tragic leader of Chetnik resistancernin World War II, Draza Mihajlovic.rnMontenegro is a strange paradox, an all or nothing landrnwhere atheist communists fought with religious zeal against thernchurch, and yet today the Orthodox metropolitan archbishoprnmay be the most widely respected man in the country. Thernmetropolitan was kind enough to give us most of a day, andrnwherever we went, people came up to show him respectpoliticalrnleaders, businessmen, railway employees, street peddlers,rncollege professors.rnIn fact, the surprising thing about Serb intellectuals is thernnumber of them that are openly Chrishan. Biljana Plavsic, althoughrna scientist, wears a cross around her neck, and on thernwalls of her office I count several religious images. Our conversationrnis interrupted by the message that the Brcko decisionrnhas been postponed. According to the announcement, the decisionrnwould have gone against the Serbs, except for thernprogress Plavsic’s government has made in acknowledging thernrights of Croats and Muslims. Although it is obviously blackmail,rnPlavsic is unconcerned, convinced, as she is, that thernSerbs’ very survival depends on their strict compliance withrnDayton. In fact, there are 18 non-Serbs among the 183rndeputies in the RS parliament—a sharp contrast with the absencernof Serbs in the other two legislatures.rnOf course, the pressure is very one-sided. The next dayrnHatehett and I agree to go to Sarajevo to chat with the Americanrnambassador about the situation. Ambassador Kauzlarich isrnan amiable man, who speaks highly of Mrs. Plavsic and acknowledgesrnthe tight spot she is in. Sdll, he complains, shernought to be flying the new Bosnian flag designed by the InternationalrnHigh Representative, who apparentiy has too muchrntime on his hands. The Westendorp flag is a cheerful Hallmarkrnlogo designed to offend nobody, inspire nobody. We point outrnthat in our drive through the Croatian sections of the Federation,rnonly the Croatian flag was displayed. In Sarajevo, ofrncourse, the Bosnian flag is acceptable because it representsrnIzetbegovic’s dream of a Muslim-dominated Bosnia, but inrnCroatian-held Bosnia, in the hilltop fortress over the ancientrntown of Jajce for example, the Ustasha checkerboard was flappingrnin the breeze. Jajce had been a mixed community, butrnSerbs without U.N. license plates woidd make a mistake if theyrnstopped to take a peek at their former homes. Kauzlarich, anrnAmerican of Croatian descent, persisted: “But the flag does flyrnin the Federation and not in the Republika Srpska.” In otherrnwords, nationalist Croats get credit for being liberal and accommodating,rnbecause they cannot prevent their Muslim alliesrnfrom flying the Westendorp flag, but the Serbs’ failure to displayrnthe flag is a sign of intransigent nationalism.rnThere was nothing to be gained by antagonizing the ambassador.rnI did not even bother to point out that cars with Muslimrnand Croat license plates were common in the RS, while wernwere told —by U.N. representatives —that it was very unwise tornenter the Federation with RS plates. What could happen?rnThey could grill us for a few hours at an improvised checkpoint.rnOr they could let the air out of our tires. Or, if they hadrngrounds for suspicion, they could make life even less pleasantrnfor us. How unpleasant? In the four-hour drive back to BanjarnLuka, we must have seen nearly a dozen ruined Orthodoxrnchurches, most of them destroyed after the fighting was over.rnSome of the ruins have spray-painted graffiti celebrating thernCroatian massacre of Serbs in the Krajina.rnthe nom de guerrernguerrilla days before he was made King PeterrnThe next day we go to Mrkonjic Grad, a town named afterrnissmned by Peter Karadgeordgevic, in hisrnWe dri’e pastrna rumed hotel. I ask the securit}- officer who is escorting us ifrnthe Croats did this w hen they withdrew. “Yes,” he says, “but thernhotel was owned and operated b- Croats. The arm- wouldn’trnlet them stay; in fact, they rounded up most of the Croats in thernarea, put their furniture in trucks, and took them into Croatia.”rnThe editor. Metropolitan Amphilochius, Ronald Hatehett, SrdjarnTrifkovic, Prof. Bogoljub Sijakovic, and our guide Father Luke.rn”The Croats are funny like that,” he explains. “In Banja Luka,rnthe Croats are alvvavs asking me why we let the Muslims stav.rn’They stink of mutton fat. If we were in charge, we’d get rid ofrnthe lot of them.'”rnIn Mrkonjic Grad, the mayor takes us to flie cemetery andrnshows us a mass grave which had contained a very few soldiersrnand many old people (now reburied after Orthodox funerals).rnWhen the Croatian army came in, the Serbs evacuated, andrnonly 500 or so stayed behind. So far the townspeople havernfound 277 bodies of victims taken from their homes and “executed”rnby the army. It is a gray and windy Sunday, and the slopingrngraveyard is fidl of new graves and mourning relatives. Irnhardly notice when the mayor, a former high school teacher,rnstops to pat a monument and turns to hide his tears. Later wernare told that the gra’e held his best friend from the army.rnW’Tien international observers came to attend the opening ofrnthe mass grave at Mrkonjic Grad, the Serbs hoped that at lastrnsome recognition would be given to their victims, but it was notrnto be. As soon as the international humanitarians realized whatrnthe trench contained, the)’ folded their tents and went away.rnOne bitter particle of truth can upset the stomach of a man whornhas fed himself onlv on lies.rnAll poets are liars, Plato and Nietzsche claimed, and badrnpoets —humanitarians, statesmen, and journalists —tell thernmo.st banal lies. If a fact-or a human being—stands up to contradictrnthem, then that fact or that human being must be eliminated.rnA dead Serb is like an honest Jew, a tolerant Southerner,rnor a hardworking black—a contradiction in terms that mustrnbe simplified, erased from the press release, stuck in a camp, orrnkept on welfiire.rnThe Serbs are always and only killers, never victims, inrnthe minds of the international observers who are writing politicalrnodes to celebrate the flag of multi-ethnic Bosnia flyingrnmerrily in the humanitarian breeze that blows through Jajce,rnsymbolic proof tliat Bosnia really is one nation. That is, afterrnall, their dream: one nation, one leader, one god —andrnMohammed is his prophet. crnlUNE 1998/13rnrnrn