Hungarian demands on Serbia were both unrealistic and demeaning (Buchan, 1991, p. 17). It is hardly surprising that Serbia refused to accept two of the conditions that AustriaHungary attempted to impose.Fascists, however, were never the dominant political force in Serbia. When the Yugoslav federation was taking shape following the end of the First World War, the Serbian Social Democrats refused to cooperate with the rightwing parties in the establishment of a Yugoslav parliament, and took the lead in unifying socialist groups (Pavlowitch, 1971, p. 77). Socialists, communists, and Serbians eventually dominated the Yugoslav political scene.In the aftermath of the breakup of the Yugoslav federation subsequent to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the Serbians were generally painted as the personification of evil, while the Croatians, Slovenes, Bosnian Muslims, and other nationalities were portrayed as victims. In actual fact, ethnic cleansing was practiced first by the Croatians and the Bosnian Muslims against Serbians living in Croatia and Bosnia. The western world generally ignored these ethnic cleansing activities because the Serbians were generally unrepentant socialists, while the other nationalities were generally moving in a rightist political and economic direction. When the Serbians began to fight back and began to engage in ethnic cleansing activities against the Croatians and Bosnian Muslims, however, the western world took note, and have been denouncing the Serbians ever since.None of the above explanation is an excuse for the horrors committed by the Bosnian Serbians. The above explanation, however, provides an insight into the reasons that Serbians feel that they are treated unfairly by the international community.The current government in Serbia uses propaganda to gain the support of the Serbian population (Branson, 1991, p. 48). The government also pursues a policy of exclusion, and...
