VITAL SIGNSrnEurope’s OtherrnTerroristsrnby Philip JenkinsrnThe Croatian NetworkrnThe recent attack on New York City’srnWorld Trade Center has oncernagain reinforced in Western minds thatrnterrorism is a purely Middle Easternrnphenomenon, and that terms like “Palestinian,”rn”Shi’ite,” and “Muslim fundamentalist”rnare virtual synonyms for “terrorist.”rnThere is no room here to discussrnthe damage that such a view has had onrnAmerican Middle East policy over thernyears, but it is beyond doubt that this selectiverninterpretation has led most mediarnand government sources to ignore manyrnquite deadly terrorist movements thatrndo not fit the Arab/Iranian mold. Onlyrnthus can we explain the ludicrous (if oftenrnheard) question “Can terrorismrncome to the United States?” when thisrnnation has for 30 years been rife with allrnmanner of terrorist activities, committedrnby white leftists and anti-Castro Cubans,rnKu Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups,rnblack militants and Puerto Rican nationalists.rnThroughout the Westernrnworld, many of the most lethal andrnpersistent campaigns of international terrorismrnhave been carried on for decadesrnby groups of which the American publicrnseems quite unaware. Such groups canrnalso have an importance far beyond theirrnnumbers, when they do so much tornshape attitudes toward the domestic andrninternational conflicts in which the UnitedrnStates has a powerful interest.rnAmong the “other” terrorist groupsrnthat have earned little celebrity in comparisonrnwith the Palestinians, perhapsrnthe most significant are the Croatianrnnetworks, which have been active inrnmost Western countries for decades andrnwhich have carried out some of the mostrndaring and ruthless attacks. How manyrnAmericans recall that during the 1970’srnCroat terrorists carried out attacks onrnAmerican soil that resulted in even heavierrncasualties than the carnage at thernWorld Trade Center? Since the 1930’s,rnCroat paramilitary groups have constantlyrndemonstrated an implacable hatredrntoward the former Yugoslav state,rnand more recently toward its Serbiandominatedrnsuccessor, and they havernshown little compunction about expressingrnthis hatred through armedrnviolence.rnIt is essential to understand this historyrnif we are to appreciate the ongoingrncivil wars in the former Yugoslav republics.rnThese conflicts are frequentlyrnblamed on the attitudes and ambitionsrnof the Serbian people, but we cannotrnunderstand these concerns without referencernto the perceived (and quite plausible)rnexternal threat posed by Croatrnmilitias and terrorist groups. For thernSerbs, the Croats represent yet anotherrnchapter in a long history in which thernmere survival of the Serbian peoplernseemed at stake, and in which no outsidernforce could be found to prevent recurrentrnattempts at genocide—physical andrncultural. In such a context, it is inevitablernthat the Serbs draw such grimrnlessons from their history, that they placernsuch a premium on armed self-reliance,rnon taking vigorous and active defensivernmeasures, and above all, that they wishrnto insure that never again will the Serbianrnpeople be placed at the mercy ofrnthose who hate them. There is an obviousrn(if unpopular) analogy here to the attitudesrnthat have shaped the modernrnstate of Israel; in this model, the Croatrnterrorists thoroughly fulfill the demonrnrole played by the Palestinian guerrillarngroups for the Jewish state.rnAs in the case of the Palestinians, wernmust not suggest that all actions or propagandarnundertaken in the Croat nationalistrncause be labeled simply as “terrorism.”rnHowever, the terrorist strand inrnthat tradition can be traced to the veryrnorigins of modern Croat nationalism,rnwith the decision to undertake armedrnresistance to the Yugoslav regime in thernlate I920’s. Ustashi (“insurgent”) groupsrnsprang up rapidly with the vigorous encouragementrnof foreign intelligencernagencies, especially those of fascist Italyrnand dictatorial Hungary, representingrnperhaps the earliest example of the staternsponsorship of terrorist campaigns. (Itrnwas also at this time that Italian intelligencernsponsored the first armed guerrillarngroups among the Palestinian people.)rnDuring the next decade, Croat nationalistrngroups undertook numerous armedrnattacks, bombings, and assassinationsrnagainst Yugoslav targets, culminating inrn1934 with the murder in Marseilles ofrnthe Yugoslav King Alexander and thernErench Foreign Minister Jean LouisrnBarthdu. The actual attack was carriedrnout by a Macedonian guerrilla, but hernwas cleariy “on loan” at the time to thernUstashi, who were—as was so often therncase—executing the will of Mussolini’srnfascists.rnThe Croat extremists reached thernapex of their power following the Axisrnoccupation of Yugoslavia in 1941, andrnthe Germans established a puppet Croatrnstate under its own indigenous Fiihrer, inrnthe form of Ustashi leader Ante Pavelic.rnIt is well known that the new Croatiarnmade every effort to carry out Cermanrnplans by pursuing enthusiastically anti-rnSemitic policies. To their everlastingrncredit, many Italian soldiers and diplomatsrnshowed incredible courage in attemptingrnto protect Jews in the hands ofrnthe Croat fascists, but countless livesrnwere lost. The Croat state also massacredrnhundreds of thousands of Serbs,rnstirring national antagonisms that survivernvigorously to the present day.rnThe Allied victory in 1945 left thernCroat leadership in disarray. Some surrenderedrnto the Western Allies, only tornbe handed back to the Yugoslav communistrnauthorities for summary justice.rnAUGUST 1993/45rnrnrn