Sir, - In his report headed "Change of the Guard unlikely to affect Germany's EU policy" (The Irish Times, September 28th), your European Correspondent stated that "Dr Kohl's malign influence in backing early recognition of Croatia undoubtedly contributed to the downward spiral which led to war in former Yugoslavia".
It is in fact debatable whether it was Dr Kohl's influence or that of the then German Foreign Minister, Hans Dietrich Genscher, which was the more influential in the decision by Germany to recognise Croatian independence. However, the chronology of events preceding German recognition of Croatia is a matter of historical record.
On May 15th, 1991, Serbia blocked the election of the Croatian representative to the head of the Yugoslav Federal Presidency and thereby finally shattered the rotational system of government bequeathed to Yugoslavia by Marshall Tito.
On June 25th, 1991, Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia.
On June 27th, 1991 the Serb-dominated Yugoslav Federal Army (JNA) invaded Slovenia. "Yugoslavia, after almost a year of teetering on the edge of the precipice, had, at last, plunged headlong into war"; the quotation is from The Fall of Yugoslavia, published to accompany the BBC series of the same name.
On August 26th, 1991, JNA Colonel Ratko Mladic (the indicted war criminal now wanted for subsequent atrocities in Bosnia) began the ethnic cleansing of the Krajina area of Croatia with a 12-hour bombardment of the Croatian village of Kijevo. The village was levelled. However, "though Kijevo captured the headlines, it had coincided with an (JNA) assault in eastern Slavonia"; ibid. There followed an all-out Serb attempt to dismember Croatia.
By September 14th, 1991 "Serb forces, together with the JNA now controlled between a quarter and a third of the Republic's [i.e Croatia's] territory"; ibid.
On November 20th, 1991, the Croatian city of Vukovar fell to the JNA after a three-month siege. Hundreds of Croatian men who surrendered were taken away and murdered. Their mass grave has since been discovered at Ovcara, outside Vukovar.
On October 1st, 1991, the JNA "attacked Dubrovnik from Montenegro for the first time"; ibid. Dubrovnik was then besieged and bombarded for several months.
By the time a ceasefire was signed on January 3rd, 1992, over 6,500 Croats were officially listed as dead. Another 13,700 were "missing", mostly dead. Some 35 towns and villages in Croatia had been razed to the ground. Hundreds had been badly damaged by shell fire. About 210,000 houses had been destroyed. A third of Croatia was occupied. The Croatian government was coping with over half-a-million refugees.
On January 15th, 1992, Germany became the fifth country to recognise Croatia.
Serb aggression now focused on Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Your readers can judge for themselves whether or not Germany's recognition of Croatia "undoubtedly contributed to the downward spiral which lead to war in former Yugoslavia". - Yours, etc., J. Gerard Danaher,
Honorary Consul of the Republic of Croatia,
Serpentine Avenue,
Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4.