7 October 1999 Edition
Outpost peoples
Loyalists have much to learn from the experience of the Krajina Serbs, writes Mick Derrig
The major challenge to the Irish nation in the next century is how to facilitate the development of a peaceful and stable society on this island. The major obstacle to that is the unionist belief system within the Northeast of our country. They are Frontier Guards of a dead empire
It was heartening to hear that someone in Bosnia-Herzegovina has retained a sense of humour despite their recent history.
This decade has for them been similar to earlier episodes of our own story. The good people of that nation have experienced invasion, plantation, conquest and partition of their country. The organisers of the conference ``Divided Cities - Breaking Walls'' in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, decided to invite our very own Pretty Unsavoury Pogromers, the PUP. David Ervine said that he was ``very honoured to be invited to speak to this conference.
``We in Northern Ireland are sometimes too parochial. We often overlook the fact that other cities around the world are experiencing conflict as we are.''
That stunning absence of irony leads one to speculate that the Queen's serial killers have hired a Californian spin-doctor. However, we journey in hope for our dysfunctional neighbours.
A Good Away Result from this bit of Balkans would be to introduce our Davie to the sorry tale of the Krajina Serbs. The similarity between the belief system of Nor'n Iron Loyalism and Belgrade's Planters in southern Croatia is chilling.
The major challenge to the Irish nation in the next century is how to facilitate the development of a peaceful and stable society on this island. The major obstacle to that is the unionist belief system within the Northeast of our country. They are Frontier Guards of a dead empire. They were so constructed and thus they have remained - Outpost People.
Outpost People are historically suspicious of those for whom they hold the line. The Krajina Serbs never trusted Belgrade to back them up against the Fenian Croats. An unspoken truth was the growing perception of otherness despite the rhetoric of greater Serbia. Milosevic famously retorted to a Brit hack ``What's the matter with Greater Serbia - you've got Great Britain!''
The more that Outpost People demand of the Mother Country that they are included in the legions of the Herrenvolk as equals, the more their differences become glaringly apparent.
Is Big Ian as British as Finchley? What of the English? Are they as British as Ahoghill?
Take the salutary tale of young Duncan Shipley-Dalton, frightfully nice chap. While at university in England, he fell in with a bad crowd from Nor'n Iron. `Bewitched' by their exotic ways, he decided to join their little club and become an Orangeman.
An English Orangeman.
Doesn't sound right-does it? Anyway he went through with it. LOL 1690, the whole nine yards. He came to live in our rowdy little North East corner and fell in with more bad company.
He worked for the Nor'n Iron Police Authority and then took the Queen's Euro (Well? She's German, and so is the European Central Bank - it's her Euro!). He joined the Royal Irish Regiment for two years. He even had the learning experience of being stoned by the loyal tribesmen of East Belfast. after the signing of the GFA.
His UUP career took off when he became Assembly member for South Antrim. Things were going swimmingly when all of a sudden Shipley-Dalton Minor started to think. All downhill after that, I'm afraid.
He read the GFA, read the statements of his leader and concluded that:
(1) The GFA had no clause stating that there was to be prior decommissioning.
(2) That his leader's continued prevarication on the issue seemed - to him - to be a tactic to exclude Shinners from government.
Oops.
Then the rumblings came from the South Antrim Serbs. ``Who was this guy anyway?'' ``Not really one of us, I mean - he's English!'' What we have here isn't a political ideology but an inbred tribe who can speak only to themselves. Such is fate of Outpost People.
The Krajina planters resisted all historical attempts to assimilate. Their belief system and their relationship with their ``mother country'' would not allow them. Ironically, while Billy in the Krajina was holding the line for ``civilisation'' against the Zagreb hordes, the elite in Belgrade increasingly failed to distinguish between any of the inhabitants of the Krajina. From the vantage point of Belgrade, the denizens of southern Croatia were, well, Croatian!
What sealed the fate of the Krajina Serbs wasn't what they had always feared - a Croatian ``invasion'' of their bit of, well, Croatia - but their southern border becoming unstable. Bosnia-Herzegovina was attempting to plot a secular, non-denominational route through the ruins of Tito's vision. Sandwiched between the region's two main players - Serbia and Croatia - this was sensible, laudable, but increasingly difficult. In the end, Bosnia was effectively partitioned to suit both Zagreb and Belgrade - and the Krajian Serbs became a minor detail to be swept up. Milosevic and Croatian leader Tudjman carved up the spoils at an after-dinner chat in Vienna. The map of the Balkans was redrawn on a napkin and the big boys got a bit each of Bosnia to play with. The Krajina was in the wrong bit of the map to be populated by Serbs - they had to go.
Despite the patchwork quilt of Vance-Owen, the partition of Bosnia and the swapping of populations along ethnic lines was the big picture.
Although it was a German-equipped and US-sanctioned Croatian army that applied the coup de grace, it was the machinations of the big boys in the western alliance that put paid to their place in the scheme of things - not their Croat neighbours. The Serbs of the Krajina remained uncomprehendingly loyal to the end.
They waited in vain for the Yugoslavian Army to come to their rescue as the Croatian army tore through their towns. Outpost People are like that - expendable.
Had they assimilated and found common cause with their Croat neighbours, then they would still be in the land of their birth. Bosnia-Herzegovina's brave attempt at secular government in the region would also still be intact. Instead, the Krajina planters decided to bank on the ``security'' of being a client population of Belgrade.
Loyalism's problem is that they are Outpost People who are no longer required. The Psychologically Unstable Pipebombers (PUP) are unwanted and unneeded. Many of them cherish a Scottish connection as the most tangible evidence of their Britishness. Sadly, they might find less of a welcome there than the Krajina Serbs found in Mother Serbia.
There is now a groundswell within the Scottish National Party to distance Scotland from the Butcher's Apron and the B-Word. There is an ``It's OK to be British'' wing as well, but the debate has started and it is clear that the drift is away from the North Briton tendency.
Recently, SNP leader Alex Salmond refused to have his picture taken with the Butcher's Apron in the background. At the recent SNP party conference, the Rag was slammed as an emblem of colonialism and redolent of ``the worst aspects of Northern Ireland.'' Oh dear.
No great welcome there for the loyal sons of the Shankhill. What did Mr. Serbia himself, Slobodan Milosevic, do for the expelled ``Serbs'' from the Krajina? Simple. Where do you put Outpost People? In an Outpost of course!
Belgrade's answer was to re-plant them. This time their destination was to be Kosovo. They didn't want to be planters a second time. By that time they knew that they weren't wanted in Mother Serbia - but then they had never been wanted there.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that progressive elements within Scottish society are rapidly distancing themselves from any emblem or symbol that could associate their re-emerging nation with Sammy and Nor'n Iron.
I do hope that David found the trip to his future educational.
The major challenge to the Irish nation in the next century is how to facilitate the development of a peaceful and stable society on this island. The major obstacle to that is the unionist belief system within the Northeast of our country. They are Frontier Guards of a dead empire
It was heartening to hear that someone in Bosnia-Herzegovina has retained a sense of humour despite their recent history.
This decade has for them been similar to earlier episodes of our own story. The good people of that nation have experienced invasion, plantation, conquest and partition of their country. The organisers of the conference ``Divided Cities - Breaking Walls'' in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, decided to invite our very own Pretty Unsavoury Pogromers, the PUP. David Ervine said that he was ``very honoured to be invited to speak to this conference.
``We in Northern Ireland are sometimes too parochial. We often overlook the fact that other cities around the world are experiencing conflict as we are.''
That stunning absence of irony leads one to speculate that the Queen's serial killers have hired a Californian spin-doctor. However, we journey in hope for our dysfunctional neighbours.
A Good Away Result from this bit of Balkans would be to introduce our Davie to the sorry tale of the Krajina Serbs. The similarity between the belief system of Nor'n Iron Loyalism and Belgrade's Planters in southern Croatia is chilling.
The major challenge to the Irish nation in the next century is how to facilitate the development of a peaceful and stable society on this island. The major obstacle to that is the unionist belief system within the Northeast of our country. They are Frontier Guards of a dead empire. They were so constructed and thus they have remained - Outpost People.
Outpost People are historically suspicious of those for whom they hold the line. The Krajina Serbs never trusted Belgrade to back them up against the Fenian Croats. An unspoken truth was the growing perception of otherness despite the rhetoric of greater Serbia. Milosevic famously retorted to a Brit hack ``What's the matter with Greater Serbia - you've got Great Britain!''
The more that Outpost People demand of the Mother Country that they are included in the legions of the Herrenvolk as equals, the more their differences become glaringly apparent.
Is Big Ian as British as Finchley? What of the English? Are they as British as Ahoghill?
Take the salutary tale of young Duncan Shipley-Dalton, frightfully nice chap. While at university in England, he fell in with a bad crowd from Nor'n Iron. `Bewitched' by their exotic ways, he decided to join their little club and become an Orangeman.
An English Orangeman.
Doesn't sound right-does it? Anyway he went through with it. LOL 1690, the whole nine yards. He came to live in our rowdy little North East corner and fell in with more bad company.
He worked for the Nor'n Iron Police Authority and then took the Queen's Euro (Well? She's German, and so is the European Central Bank - it's her Euro!). He joined the Royal Irish Regiment for two years. He even had the learning experience of being stoned by the loyal tribesmen of East Belfast. after the signing of the GFA.
His UUP career took off when he became Assembly member for South Antrim. Things were going swimmingly when all of a sudden Shipley-Dalton Minor started to think. All downhill after that, I'm afraid.
He read the GFA, read the statements of his leader and concluded that:
(1) The GFA had no clause stating that there was to be prior decommissioning.
(2) That his leader's continued prevarication on the issue seemed - to him - to be a tactic to exclude Shinners from government.
Oops.
Then the rumblings came from the South Antrim Serbs. ``Who was this guy anyway?'' ``Not really one of us, I mean - he's English!'' What we have here isn't a political ideology but an inbred tribe who can speak only to themselves. Such is fate of Outpost People.
The Krajina planters resisted all historical attempts to assimilate. Their belief system and their relationship with their ``mother country'' would not allow them. Ironically, while Billy in the Krajina was holding the line for ``civilisation'' against the Zagreb hordes, the elite in Belgrade increasingly failed to distinguish between any of the inhabitants of the Krajina. From the vantage point of Belgrade, the denizens of southern Croatia were, well, Croatian!
What sealed the fate of the Krajina Serbs wasn't what they had always feared - a Croatian ``invasion'' of their bit of, well, Croatia - but their southern border becoming unstable. Bosnia-Herzegovina was attempting to plot a secular, non-denominational route through the ruins of Tito's vision. Sandwiched between the region's two main players - Serbia and Croatia - this was sensible, laudable, but increasingly difficult. In the end, Bosnia was effectively partitioned to suit both Zagreb and Belgrade - and the Krajian Serbs became a minor detail to be swept up. Milosevic and Croatian leader Tudjman carved up the spoils at an after-dinner chat in Vienna. The map of the Balkans was redrawn on a napkin and the big boys got a bit each of Bosnia to play with. The Krajina was in the wrong bit of the map to be populated by Serbs - they had to go.
Despite the patchwork quilt of Vance-Owen, the partition of Bosnia and the swapping of populations along ethnic lines was the big picture.
Although it was a German-equipped and US-sanctioned Croatian army that applied the coup de grace, it was the machinations of the big boys in the western alliance that put paid to their place in the scheme of things - not their Croat neighbours. The Serbs of the Krajina remained uncomprehendingly loyal to the end.
They waited in vain for the Yugoslavian Army to come to their rescue as the Croatian army tore through their towns. Outpost People are like that - expendable.
Had they assimilated and found common cause with their Croat neighbours, then they would still be in the land of their birth. Bosnia-Herzegovina's brave attempt at secular government in the region would also still be intact. Instead, the Krajina planters decided to bank on the ``security'' of being a client population of Belgrade.
Loyalism's problem is that they are Outpost People who are no longer required. The Psychologically Unstable Pipebombers (PUP) are unwanted and unneeded. Many of them cherish a Scottish connection as the most tangible evidence of their Britishness. Sadly, they might find less of a welcome there than the Krajina Serbs found in Mother Serbia.
There is now a groundswell within the Scottish National Party to distance Scotland from the Butcher's Apron and the B-Word. There is an ``It's OK to be British'' wing as well, but the debate has started and it is clear that the drift is away from the North Briton tendency.
Recently, SNP leader Alex Salmond refused to have his picture taken with the Butcher's Apron in the background. At the recent SNP party conference, the Rag was slammed as an emblem of colonialism and redolent of ``the worst aspects of Northern Ireland.'' Oh dear.
No great welcome there for the loyal sons of the Shankhill. What did Mr. Serbia himself, Slobodan Milosevic, do for the expelled ``Serbs'' from the Krajina? Simple. Where do you put Outpost People? In an Outpost of course!
Belgrade's answer was to re-plant them. This time their destination was to be Kosovo. They didn't want to be planters a second time. By that time they knew that they weren't wanted in Mother Serbia - but then they had never been wanted there.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that progressive elements within Scottish society are rapidly distancing themselves from any emblem or symbol that could associate their re-emerging nation with Sammy and Nor'n Iron.
I do hope that David found the trip to his future educational.