Newspaper Article

As Formal End Nears, Some Lament Passing of the Yugoslavia They Knew

SUDETIC, CHUCK

1992

Overview

\"I'm sorry for the Yugoslavia I knew intimately,\" said Ksenija Pergar, an unemployed woman from Slovenia who just a year ago escorted foreigners on package tours through her republic's snow-capped alps, Sarajevo's mosques and Dubrovnik's limestone piazzas and palaces. \"But I understand in my mind, that it had to come to an end.\" \"Yugoslavia has failed the test of democracy,\" said one man who has been active in the political life of the federation for four decades. In testimony to the tense atmosphere, he spoke on condition that his name not be used and that he be described by his former rank of Government Minister. \"The Yugoslav state has killed itself,\" he continued. \"Many countries, including some that will recognize the secessionist republics, have wanted this country to survive.\" U.N. Peacekeepers Arrive \"Everyone will suffer from Yugoslavia's collapse,\" said Branko Horvat, an internationally known economist from Zagreb. \"This is not because the old Yugoslavia has fallen apart. It is because the present war has not created democracy or the conditions for it, and many victims will fall before people realize it.\"

• Publisher: New York Times Company
• Subject: CIVIL WAR AND GUERRILLA WARFARE / MINORITIES (ETHNIC, RACIAL, RELIGIOUS) / SUDETIC, CHUCK / WILSON, JOHN (COL)