Gilbert Gutknecht: “In terms of what really happened in Yugoslavia when communism collapsed, when the whole country sort of was torn apart…”

“In terms of what really happened in Yugoslavia when communism collapsed, when the whole country sort of was torn apart, we need to understand that the real precursor, in my opinion, having seen this now, to the ethnic unrest that then started was really an economic motivation. When unemployment hit 40 percent, all of a sudden that created tensions between the groups that had not been there when the economy was relatively strong. It may have been a false economy, it was a Communist economy, but I think that is something that is important. I think where the administration has, in some respects, done a poor job of communicating the situation over there, I think long-term what we need to think about, and I think that this was generally the consensus of the delegation, that rather than focusing on this myopic view of an exit strategy and when are the troops going to be out, I think our conclusion was that we need to focus on what are the expectations of the Bosnian people. In the book of Proverbs it says, 'Where there is no vision, the people perish.' And the question we asked several times is, what is the vision of the Bosnian people? Can they return to a peaceful coexistence? I think, generally speaking, the answer to that question is yes.”