In the Yugoslav conflict,rnmisinformation has exceededrnanything ever witnessedrnduring World War II.rnWe now know a great deal about these “Serb” atrocities inrnSarajevo. Jean Daniel, editor of the magazine Le NouvelrnObservateur, in the August 31, 1995, issue under the revealingrntitle, “No more lies about Bosnia,” made an unprecedentedrnconfession: that the Prime Minister at the time of the marketrnmassacre, as well as many other ministers and two Frenchrngenerals, had confirmed to him that the Muslims were the truernauthors of this carnage. The following statement is selfexplanatory:rn”They [the Muslims] have committed this carnage onrntheir own people?” 1 exclaimed in consternation. “Yes,”rnconfirmed the Prime Minister [Eduard Balladur] withoutrnhesitation, “but at least they have forced NATO tornintervene.”rnThe military interventions against the Serbs were thereforernjustified because of this useful lie, or, more precisely, by a seriesrnof lies; the initial lie creating others so as to confirm and justifyrnthe preceding one. Even as there is in France an unnerving similarityrnwith the Dreyfus Affair, there is m the Markale marketplacernaffair a sort of slow progression into immorality which thernmedia have refused to acknowledge. During the DreyfusrnAffair, none of the main players ever admitted to having usedrnlies to defend the honor of the French army. In the case ofrnMarkale, a Prime Minister admits, without hesitation, that a liernwas propagated, but that he considered it necessary to helprnNATO come out of its indecision.rnObviously, we need to investigate the reasons for this vastrncampaign of misinformation which, both in the Westrnand in the Muslim world, has tried to present the Serbs as aggressors.rnAlthough the Western media are free, they are not independentrnfrom governmental pressures, especially when itrncomes to foreign policy. More often than not, a governmentrnwill suggest to the media a general orientation on which it willrnlater depend, in the form of public opinion, to justify its policies.rnThis was the modus operandi of the German government,rnwhich prematurely recognized Croatia and Sloveniarnunder the pretext of pressures from public opinion which it hadrnitself shaped.rnThe decisive (though discreet) role of Germany in the decompositionrnof Yugoslavia was of critical importance. Thernchronology of events demonstrates this very well. The conflictrnin Yugoslavia started less than a year after the fall of the BedinrnWall, almost as if there was a cause-and-effect relation whichrnjoined the reunification of Germany with the decompositionrnof Yugoslavia. The German desire to have an opening to thernMediterranean and to be surrounded by small satellite states isrncertainly an important element of its foreign policy. After all, itrnis not the Serbs who invented the Drang Nach Osten, or evenrnthe idea of Lebensmum, this vital space the German peoplernsupposedly need to flourish.rnBy supporting the decomposition of Yugoslavia, Germanyrnhas also satisfied its long-standing obsession with a state whichrnit believed, wrongly, to be an artificial creation of the Treatv ofrnVersailles. For Turkey, a secular state that is strongly influencedrnby fundamentalist groups, the establishment of the first Islamicrnstate in Europe would be in some ways a return to its gloryrndays in the Balkans. To understand all these geopolitical problems,rnwe can turn to the writings of General Pierre M. Galloisrnand specifically his book Le Soleil d’Allah Aveugle I’Occident.rnIdentifying clearly the powers which have an interest in seeingrnthe Serbs blamed as the aggressors in the Yugoslavian conflictrndoes not necessarily imply the innocence of the Serbs nor thernculpability of the Groats and Muslims, but it does show thatrnthe culpability of the Serbs is based essentially on geopoliticalrnconcerns.rnHowever, it is in editorial cartoons that the demonization ofrnthe Serbs has reached a degree of virulence and racism hithert(rn3 never seen (or allowed) in the Western media. The caricaturernpublished in the Montreal daily Le Devoir from Februaryrn14, 1995, shows Serbs firing on children in Sarajevo. It is accompaniedrnby the following sentence: “The problem with kidsrnis that thev move all the time.” The same primitive smear tacticrnis evident in different caricatures published by such Frenchrnpapers as Le Monde and L’Express, which continue to this dayrnto draw Serb soldiers decorated with the communist star, anrnemblem which has not been worn for many years. The Montrealrndaily Gazette published on July 12, 1995, a picture of Dr.rnKaradzic with a simian face, along with the following commentary:rn”The living proof of Darwin’s theory: Serb leaderrnRadovan Karadzic.” In the same vein, Danas magazine, whichrnis published in Zagreb, shows the evolution of a monkey into arnman and his regression from man to Serb.rnThe caricature published by La Presse on Wednesday, Mayrn10, 1995, deserves a special place in this Hall of Shame. TwornSerb soldiers are shown shooting on a city, probably Sarajevo,rnwhile one of them comments, “We’re not killing large scale likernin ’40! WE don’t work with huge ovens. WE do this with finerndetail. . . one by one!” When we know that many Serbs endedrnup in Croatian crematoriums during World War II, it is timernto sav, “Enough is enough!” Had any other ethnic group beenrnthe target of such a vicious and racist attack, every human rightsrngroup in the worid would have been outraged.rnAfter the fall of the Berlin Wall, a new era of prosperityrnseemed to open for Western nations, and the war in Yugoslaviarnforced European leaders to choose between European unityrnand the destruction of Yugoslavia. Pressed by the troubles ofrnMaastricht and by German stubbornness on the question ofrnrecognition of secessionist states, they decided to sacrifice thernlatter without realizing that in the long run this also signifiedrnthe death of the European spirit. This opened a Pandora’s Boxrnfrom which old demons escaped and joined with new ones,rnwhich no one had the courage to call by their names. Insteadrnof recognizing Germany’s responsibility, the ruling politicalrnand intellectual leaders preferred simply to close their eyes.rnThe demonization of the Serbs was the result.rn26/CHRONICLESrnrnrn