As with any bereavement, the hardest thing for those left behind is accepting the fact of death. But now even I am forced to admit defeat after years spent keeping the log of Yugoslavia's march towards the point of no return. It is merely a sign of my irresponsible faith in some last-minute miracle that it should have taken a full-scale Federal Army attack on one of Yugoslavia's constituent republics to force me to accept that the past must be buried. Over the past four years or so I had become increasingly convinced that Yugoslavia was indeed dying. That it was just a matter of time. That its death made sense and should be welcomed. Yet even now, as I insist that the last rites be performed and the international community recognise the reality of Yugoslavia's collapse, the appropriate response to this death eludes me.

LRB 25 July 1991 | PDF Download