[Yugoslavia Memory of a Disaster] 1991. On Yugoslavia, the thought leaders have nothing to say.

27 September 1991 Nicolas Gros Verheyde

There had been an unprecedented outpouring of generosity for the “liberation” of Bucharest, a charter of personalities for the Berlin Wall, the enthusiasm of politicians for Yeltsin not long ago.
For Yugoslavia, hay of any philosophical intensity. The “thinking” community remains in its great majority of a cautious hermeticism.

Our dear intellectuals, for the most part, are more surprised by our question than by the subject. Thus Alain Finkelkraut has “already expressed on the subject at the beginning of July in Le Monde
and is preparing a program on October 5 on France Culture”. Sufficient ! And Alexandre Adler of the newspaper Liberation believes that“…the stakes are far too small to tax the
Yugoslavs of imperialists. They have already put in the air more than half of their GNP for the year”.

Those who try to explain: Rony Braumann, president of Doctors Without Borders: “Yugoslavia is first of all a civil war and for public opinion, nothing beats a
a minority of bad guys versus a majority of good guys; secondly the Balkans, it is the fear of the beginning of the century which is reborn in the face of crises that we thought were buried”. Or, Gérard Fuchs, in charge of
international relations at the Socialist Party, ”We are stuck in a situation that we have lost the habit of since the beginnings of the First World War. In this conflict, to whom
identify themselves as bearers of morality? In this case there is no obvious right and wrong, good and bad”.

Those who prioritize an ideal of action for Europe, like André Glucksman: “ of what order should the positions have been: 1) the federation has lesser rights than the ethnic groups in
the Nations ; 2) in each nation, ethnic groups and minorities have rights superior to majorities; 3 the right of minorities themselves is not an absolute right”.

Those who cautiously remain absent subscribers, like Bernard Kouchner, Secretary of State “for major causes”; his only release on AFP and in the world, saw our apostle of good causes
desperately clinging to the credo of the “right to humanitarian interference to impose democracy … including in Yugoslavia”.

And finally, those who have already buried Yugoslavia, like Jack Lang, Minister of Culture, made a brave decision, “register the Chapel on the inventory of historical monuments
Saint Save and the reading room of Fort Foch in Niederhausbergen".

Thank you Tonton, must say all the Yugoslavs on their knees begging that their country be included on the list of major construction sites for the year 2000!