NO ALLIES

The Daily Mail is a major British right-wing newspaper. It has a circulation of 2.5 million. It stands for 'family values'. It is hostile to the EU, and thus has been none too kind to the Germans. Tony Blair's spin doctors had to work overtime to blunt its fire in order for Labour to get elected.

On 7 September a letter appeared in the Daily Mail which, amongst other things, informed us that Croatia has revived it's old war time military units with their old names, that Germany and her "allies" (under the guise of NATO and the EU are inflicting on Serbia now what they did in World War 2, that Serbia was Britain's "war-time ally" and how the writer can't imagine how older Serbians feel about all this. Our old favourite "All sides were guilty" regarding the recent war was mentioned. He also referred to Blair and co as "pot smoking liberals"!

I decided to set things straight - bar the pot-smoking thing, not my concern - and delightfully the Mail published. There were some edits - including the insertion of the work "Balkan" before anyone emails me to complain!

 

The Daily Mail

14 September 2000

 

The claim that Serbia was our "wartime ally" needs closer examination (Letters 7 September). Serbia as well as Croatia had a Nazi puppet regime, and whereas in Croatia, the Nazis had to bring in exiles to run the country. This didn't prove necessary in Serbia, where General Nedic willingly did the job.

Serbian Chetnik forces were initially allied with the British but Churchill dropped them when it transpired that not only were they ineffective, they were collaborating with the enemy.

They were also guilty of appalling civilian massacres.

The Serbs themselves clearly did not think Britain was an old ally when, in 1995, they took hostage our troops serving with the UN in Bosnia.

Present-day Croatian Armed forces aren't based on wartime units and will be exercising later this month not with German troops but with the US Marine Corps.

As for "all sides being guilty" in the recent Balkan conflict, Serbia invaded, occupied and ethnically cleansed one third of Croatia while no Croatian soldier set foot in Serbia.

 

Brian Gallagher

London