THE SERB LOBBY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Book review Croatian American Times
29 August 2000
This paper is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the wars in former Yugoslavia. Without understanding the role of the Serb lobby, an understanding of British policy in the region is impossible and leaves one open to disinformation. Carole Hodge is a research fellow and head of research and study at the South East European Research Unit at the University of Glasgow. She produces a disturbing account of the extent and influence of the Serb lobby, for a time arguably the most influential in the UK (A quarter of a million people died in these wars, in no small part due to the arms embargo supported by this lobby) .
It determined the British government's policy of non-intervention and the arms embargo throughout the Croatian and most of the Bosnian war. She demonstrates how all levels of society such as parliament, the media, the trade unions and government were penetrated (including paid trips to Serb held areas) by the Yugoslav government and the large Serbian community in the UK. Hodge is merciless in her quoting of prominent figures.
Tony Benn MP is quoted admonishing the House of Commons for its lack of knowledge on history, informing the House that the Serbs "took on the Nazis" - a favourite myth of the Serb lobby. As Hodge points out, many Serb leaders such as General Nedic collaborated with the Nazis. Belgrade had the dubious distinction of being the first European city to be declared 'Judenfrei' - Jew free.
Hardly evidence of taking on the Nazis! Much of the paper concerns the Kosovo conflict, during which many claimed the British media played a supportive role to NATO.
Hodge thoroughly debunks this claim, showing how the British media contained numerous criticisms of NATO. Hodge refutes the journalist John Pilger's theory that the Kosovo war was caused by the "amazing NATO plan, tabled at Rambouillet, to occupy Yugoslavia", which the Serbs could not accept. If this is so, Hodge asks, why did they not mention it immediately, or even during the first week of bombing when many Serb representatives appeared in the media? It's past time the Serb lobby was ignored. Hodge is concerned by the implications for peace if this lobby has any further influence.
She is correct. Serb lobbying continues without any hint of remorse for the crimes committed against non-Serbs.
By giving them sympathy and accepting their myths, the Serbs can only be encouraged that the ideal of a 'Greater Serbia' should continue to be striven for. Britain once stood alone against the Nazis and was in the forefront of the cold war against communism. In the future, historians will look back at the early 1990's.
They will puzzle as to how it was that Britain abandoned its historic duty to defend fellow Europeans against tyranny, by allowing them to be slaughtered and ethnically cleansed by the Serbs. This remarkable paper will help in understanding why.
© Brian Gallagher
The Serb Lobby in the United Kingdom ($6.50 USD (add $1 extra for overseas); cheques/IMOs payable to University of Washington) Available from: Donald W. Treadgold Papers, Jackson School of International Studies, Box 353650, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-3650, USA. Advisable to call to check details on: (206) 543-4852