mperialism has nothing to boast about the "capture" of Radovan Karadzic in Belgrade, Serbia, on July 21, 2008: the Bosnian Serb nationalist leader, formerly a protege by the late Slobodan Milosevic, was cynically given to European and American imperialism and their "International Court" in Hague by the nationalists of Milosevic's Socialist Party itself.

Karadzic was a fugitive from 1995, when the "International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia" (ICTY) in Hague, first has raised charges against him for "genocide". In 1996, immediately after the imperialist imposed Dayton agreement that ended the war in Bosnia by transforming it into a NATO occupied protectorate, he was compelled to leave his post as a head of the Bosnian Serb entity. He was accused for "crimes against humanity" in Bosnia by the NATO "humanitarians" that have destroyed Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan the last decade; together with the Serbian General Ratko Mladic, still in liberty, Karadzic is, particularly, considered as a main responsible for the horrible massacre of Bosnian Muslims civilians in Srebrenica, during the bloody wars that dismembered former Yugoslavia in the 90s.

The last 13 years Karadzic was hiding, probably with the help of the Serbian security services controlled by supporters of the late nationalist Stalinist leader Slobodan Milosevic and his Party. Three weeks before the arrest, a new coalition government was formed in Belgrade, whose main partners are the openly pro-imperialist Democratic Party of the President Tadic and the Socialist Party led by Ivica Dacic, successor of Milosevic. Dacic became deputy prime minister and head of the crucial Ministry of Interior, controlling the police forces. Less a month after his nomination, Karadzic miraculously was "found" and arrested in Serbia's capital. It is obvious that the "sudden" arrest was a part of the deal between the nationalists of the Milosevic's party and imperialism, sealing their new pact of collaboration on the ruins of former Yugoslavia.

The European Union and the United States immediately hailed this new development as opening the road for Serbia to join the Union of European capitalist bandits. Dora Bakoyanis, the current foreign minister of the Karamanlis government in Greece, was particularly enthusiastic with the capture of Karadzic, forgetting that her father, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, former right wing Prime Minister in early 90s, was close friend and protector of the Serb Bosnian nationalist leader. (For the Greek people, anyway, the attitude of the daughter of Mitsotakis comes as no surprise; it is well known that the Mitsotakis family has a long tradition of double dealing and treachery, going back at least to the events of 1965 leading to the 1967 military dictatorship).

But George A. Papandreou also, the leader of the Official Opposition "socialist" party PASOK and chairman re-elect of the Socialist International, was more that enthusiastic with these events; he himself was very instrumental to seal the alliance between Tadic's party and Milosevic's party during the recent meeting of the Socialist International in Greece- a vital step to overcome the impasse after the ambiguous results of the last elections in Serbia, and the crisis of governance; above, all the formation of this alliance was the necessary precondition to establish in Belgrade a government totally subservient to Western imperialist interests.

Washington, London, Paris, Brussels and Athens combined their efforts and pressures and temporarily have succeeded to have another puppet regime in this Archipelago of imperialist protectorates, in which former Yugoslavia has collapsed. By giving the head of Karadzic to the Court in Hague, the Democratic Party/Socialist Party coalition government presents its credential

Washington, London, Paris, Brussels and Athens combined their efforts and pressures and temporarily have succeeded to have another puppet regime in this Archipelago of imperialist protectorates, in which former Yugoslavia has collapsed. By giving the head of Karadzic to the Court in Hague, the Democratic Party/Socialist Party coalition government presents its credentials not to the Serbian people but to their masters in Brussels and Washington.

The pompously misnamed "International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia" badly needed such a development. Its legitimacy is strongly challenged and its failures are obvious to all to see: the prime accused Slobodan Milosevic died in custody under mysterious conditions; his former collaborator and one of the main witnesses against Milosevic, Milan Babic, committed suicide in custody; the trial of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj has turned into a circus; the acquittals of the Bosniak military commander Naser Oric and of the UCK commander, the Kosovar Ramush Haradinaj have made the persecution a laughing stock; the release on July 18, 2008 of the first convict of the Tribunal, the unrepentant low-ranking soldier Dusan (Dusko) Tadic, made even worst this legitimacy crisis. Now, the imperialists behind The Hague Court hope that a trial of Karadzic will help to re-invigorate their discredited institution and its main mission: to cover up for the worst criminals, the architects of Yugoslavia's tragedy, namely the EU and US imperialisms.

Karadzic himself, as well as other leading members of the nationalist cliques, is part of the counter-revolutionary process that dismembered Yugoslavia. But his role and eventually his crimes have to be judged by the popular masses of former Yugoslavia, not by their butchers in the West.

It is clearly demonstrated that nationalism promoted by the bureaucratic elites, so instrumental for the destruction of the gains of the Yugoslav Socialist Revolution, has completely capitulated now in front of imperialism to become its faithful watchdog. It is not the first time: from the times of the Chetnik nationalists of Draza Mikhailovic during the Nazi Occupation to the Dayton Agreement under Slobodan Milosevic, Balkan nationalism in every form has proven to be a dangerous and treacherous enemy of its own people, and of all Balkan peoples. Now it was not so difficult for them to "sacrifice" an icon of Serbian nationalism for their elite interests.

Serbian economy is in ruins after years of devastation, wars, isolation and pressures by the West. Their ruling cliques cannot survive any more by balancing between Russia and EU; they see as their only way out integration to the EU. This is the reason and hope behind nationalism's surrender.

This hope is vain. The capitalist world, including and particularly the EU, is plunging in the "worst crisis from 1929", as the leading spokesmen for capitalism now admit. The EU extension in the East and its economic burden coincides and interacts with the ongoing world crisis, undermining capitalist restoration and stabilization plans in the former "socialist countries" in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and Russia.

The working class and the oppressed masses in former Yugoslavia and in the Balkans need now more than ever to unite and fight for a way out from the crisis. Nationalism has betrayed, and now it is giving up even its own leaders. Internationalism and Socialism is the only way forward. This is the road that the Balkan Socialist Centre "Christian Rakovsky", despite all difficulties, fights to open for all the oppressed and fighters in our region.

Down with EU and US imperialism! For a Balkan Socialist Federation of free and independent peoples!