Merkel Visiting Serbia To Assert Her Authority

German Chancellor Merkel is visiting Croatia and Serbia this week for talks on the future of the region, including discussion on EU membership for the Balkan states.

The German delegation includes a group of business leaders, keen to get their hands on Serbia's energy supplies.

Merkel's trip to Croatia and Serbia in the middle of the financial crisis engulfing Europe, is seen by many as a strong sign of Germany's diplomatic commitment to the region.
Germany is Croatia's second-largest trade partner, after Italy, and the third largest investor in the country. The country's stunning Adriatic coast is also a perennial favourite of German tourists with over 1.5 million visiting Croatia in 2010.

"I will ask that Croatia makes an effort for countries that are not very far yet (on the EU path) like Bosnia-Herzegovina and to ensure that the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo does not escalate," Said Merkel in a recent interview.

"One of my tasks will be to convince Serbia that it must resume dialogue with Kosovo," said Merkel in her weekly podcast broadcast on the Chancellory website on Saturday.

The visit comes shortly after Serbian trade has been blocked by other Balkan states - a move sure to be used as leverage on Serbia.

German interest in the strategically important region has been obvious since the fall of the Berlin Wall, despite largely being hidden from western media.
GermanyWatch takes no sides in the ongoing fight for recognition in the Balkans, and as ever with propagandised media reports coming out of the region for the last two decades, it is difficult to get an exact picture.
However one thing is clear from the conflicts; Germany was a major supporter and beneficiary in the break-up of Yugoslavia, in a chilling echo of WW2 expansionism.

Hitler of course, was the first German to break up Yugoslavia into racial statelets in 1941/1942.
Germany backed, armed, and supported individual nationalist groups to fight and break up the region, in much the same way as she has backed Irish and Scottish independence groups in the past.
This move had a number of benefits to Hitler's Germany, including but not limited to; Removing western influence, creating Nazi Quisling regimes as a protective corridor from attack, providing German access to the Adriatic, bringing  Croatia and Slovenia within the German economic zone, securing a favoured nation status with the oil and gas producing Arab states, and furthering Hitler's racial plans for Europe.

Jasenovac concentration camp, in the newly independent Nazi backed Croatia, was one of the largest camps of the war, with a massive 1m plus death toll. The majority of the victims were Serbs, Roma, and Jews. The Nazi puppet Ustashe regime ran the camps and SS death squads. Another group supported by the Nazi regime was Balli Kombetar, a Fascist Albanian Nationalist group.
Britain fought on the side of the Serbs in WW2, who were Britain's allies. After the war, the region was re-instated as Yugoslavia, helping to lower ethnic tensions.

By 1992, through much German meddling in the region, including working with their previous Fascist allies in Croatia, and Balli Kombetar in Albania, Yugoslavia was again broken-apart into racial statelets to the same design as Hitler had created 60 years previously.

The UK is somewhat of a special case as far as Germany is concerned, both historically, when, allied with the Serbs, she was twice instrumental in defeating German expansionism, and currently, when the UK impedes Germany's domination of the EU. After WW2 until the demise of communism and German reunification, Germany needed the UK as an ally to help defend its Eastern border. After 1989, German Government actions indicate that the UK is seen  as an impediment to Germany's strategic ambitions.
Germany has taken steps to undermine the UK's financial standing, and its credibility within the EU, NATO and the North Atlantic Alliance.

It should be remembered, that by breaking up the former Yugoslavia, Germany has created four new member states at the United Nations in New York, all four of these new states will be 'encouraged' to vote in favour of Germany being given a seat on the UN Security Council (Germany’s support for Scottish Independence may have the same effect, UK loses UN influence). For its part, Germany is playing an active role to gain EU membership for Croatia and Slovenia. In Slovenia's first multi-party government following secession from Yugoslavia, no less than six Ministers were of German descent.

The reunification of the two Germanies and modernisation of the East German armed forces, made available a substantial pool of weapons and military instructors for the arming and training of a Croatian militia. During late 1989, and throughout 1990, arms flowed from Germany to Croatia to equip militia units. After his HDZ party (Croatian Democratic  Union) won control of the Sabor in the May 30, 1990 elections, the newly  elected President Tudjman formed a National Guard Corps (ZNG). In effect, the ZNG was not a "national" force in the accepted meaning' of the word, rather it was the ultra-nationalist, neo-USTASHE military wing of Tudjman's HDZ political party, in the same way that the "Brownshirts" of the 1930s acted as the vanguard enforcement wing of Hitler's National Socialist Party.

With the full support of Germany, and against the wishes of other members of the EC, the HDZ ruling party declared Croatian sovereignty in the Sabor on December 22, 1990, despite strong objections raised by the opposition parties. 

In December 1991, EEC heads of state gathered for a crucial meeting at Maastricht, to agree a treaty for the future development of the European Community, including moves towards a common policy on foreign affairs and security.

Western European Union document 1342 Part two, dated November 6, 1992, indicates that at the Maastricht meeting, the unity of the EEC was maintained at the expense of the unity of Yugoslavia. In the course of heated  discussions on European security and a common policy on foreign affairs, Germany injected  the problems in Yugoslavia.

From a position where the EEC members were 11 to one in favour of maintaining the unity of Yugoslavia, Germany succeeded at 04.00 hrs in forcing approval for the recognition of Croatia and Slovenia as independent states, essentially as a condition for German involvement. The Maastricht Treaty was signed, and a press statement issued that the EEC was united on all major policy matters.

Yugoslav unity was sacrificed to maintain EC unity. By its actions, Germany had proved it had become the dominant power in the European Community and was prepared to use its economic strength to achieve strategic goals in the post cold war era. A few days after the conclusion of the Maastricht meeting, on December 23, 1991, German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher immediately pushed for recognition of the Yugoslav republics of Croatia and Slovenia to the EU - effective from January 15, 1992.  Germany also gave a promise to gain them membership of the United Nations; effected just five months later on May 22, 1992.

Germany then forced through EEC recognition of Bosnia/Herzegovina on April 6, 1992; The anniversary of Germany's invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941. This was done against all the advice and warnings of the conflict that would occur in the region from knowledgeable statesman, including Lord Carrington who resigned from his post as EEC Peace Negotiator.

GermanyWatch does not condone or try to limit claims of ethnic cleansing on either side of the regional conflict, but as the western media has largely been filled with Serbain atrocities, the following should be noted. 

One of the most sinister changes after Croatian independence, was that every identified Serb in Croatia was issued with a new identity card which incorporated the figure 3 as the eighth figure in the identity number.  The figure 3 thus became the Croatian equivalent for Serbs as nazi Germany's Star of David/ IBM punchcard number were for all Jews residing in countries dominated by Germany. When the time came for ethnic cleansing to start, the figure 3 would ensure no Serb would escape.

With the Balkans under German sphere of influence, the next step for German Quisling governments would be Greece and Cyprus for access to the Med.

Don't forget that WW1 was sparked by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand by a Serb. Germany then allied with Austria and declared war on Serbia, after disputes over territory. Austria lost land to Serbia at Versailles. Two World Wars have still not settled the issues.
In fifty years, we may look back at 1991 as the unofficial start of a third European-wide conflict.