SURVIVING THE PEACE The Struggle for Postwar Recovery in Bosnia-Herzegovina

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March 15, 2021
Updates: Srebrenica elections, Corona, Kozarac autoput, resurgence of denialism.

Srebrenica elections

The tangled mess that was the municipal election in Srebrenica—November 15, repeated on February 21—has come to a sorry end. As I wrote in last month's blog entry, the Central Election Commission (CIK) annulled the November elections in Srebrenica and scheduled new ones. Those elections really needed annulling, for all the sordid reasons I have described. But the CIK made at least one unconscionable decision that, rather than introducing fairness, worked in quite the opposite way, with bad repercussions. That is, CIK decided that the new elections would not involve any mail-in voting, and that the ballots mailed in the November elections would thus remain valid.

This decision meant two things: first, that all the falsified ballots mailed from Serbia and other places, under the names of people who actually had nothing to do with those ballots, would still be counted. Second, hundreds of people in the diaspora had never gotten the chance to vote, either because the ballots were mailed to them too late, or they never received them at all. Either one of these problems was enough to swing the results to the original "victor," Serb mayoral candidate and incumbent Mladen Grujičić.

In response to the CIK decisions, the coalition representing Bosniak voters in (and from) Srebrenica, Moja adresa: Srebrenica (My address: Srebrenica), decided to boycott the elections. A spokesperson for the coalition said that one third of Srebrenica's Bosniak voters live abroad, and that a thousand votes would thus be cancelled. He added that the upcoming recount would be part of the "last phase of political cleansing in the Republika Srpska." In response to this, he said, not only would Bosniaks boycott the elections; Bosniak candidates from the November polls, still on the ballot, would decline to take their seats. Three or four Bosniaks were still expected to win seats in the municipal assembly, by virtue of ballots still valid from the previous count.

Leading Bosniak politicians based in Sarajevo supported the boycott, but there was some pushback. Journalist and commentator Avdo Avdić, mentioned in these blogs before, sarcastically called the decision a "genius move." He said that the Sarajevo politicians only supported the boycott because they "didn't want to be seen as traitors." He asked if the Bosniak politicians even knew what they wanted, and stated that they did not seem to know how to organize to get votes.

Another commentator, from Prijedor, doubled down, saying that the electoral situation in the RS in general signaled the political decline of Bosniaks in that entity, fostered by a "general division [of the community], and the absence of will for any kind of political participation," and bad choices of candidates leading to unfortunate results. He criticized the political component of the Bosniak community for having "no plan, no strategy," and acting with "complete improvisation, without ideas." He described the "political capitulation of those forces that have at least declaratively considered themselves pro-Bosnia, the parties with centers in Sarajevo. They are aloof from other towns and Cantons" in Bosnia, as if they were insignificant places. This analyst finished with dour predictions for the national elections in 2024.

The OSCE as well declared that the boycott was "not in the interest of a healthy democracy." But the Bosniak community was in a position where it could not win, either way. Representatives announced that they planned to take the case to the Bosnian Constitutional Court.

Predictably, Grujičić won the February 21 revote. Only 166 Bosniaks participated. Grujičić declared that he would have won in any case.

After the new election the Bosniak representatives who had retained seats in the municipal assembly decided to keep their positions after all. The Constitutional Court did not respond to the Bosniaks' appeal. The situation appears to be settled.

Corona

The pandemic is raging in Bosnia-Herzegovina, especially in Sarajevo. But after an agonizing delay, vaccinations have started to arrive in both entities. The RS has gotten a significant head start on the Federation.

On one hand, Bosnia-Herzegovina is just another "poorer" country, one of at least a hundred, with little or no means to acquire the vaccines. But at the same time, this failure is yet another manifestation of the weak and fractured state that is Bosnia.

Early on, Bosnia registered with the UN's Covax agency, responsible for worldwide distribution of vaccines. What appears in hindsight to be a mistake was that Bosnia trusted Covax. While rich countries were stockpiling more vaccines than they could quickly use, some of Bosnia's neighbors—notably Serbia—were ordering vaccines directly from producers, or making arrangements with various governments to receive them. Bosnia was doing none of this, and this has become the latest scandal.

Editor-in-chief of Oslobodjenje and commentator Vildana Selimbegović wrote that the government of the Federation is behaving with "absolute ignorance"—that "no one has done anything, and no one is planning to do anything" about the crisis...that there is "a clear consensus to do nothing."

Government ministers at various levels quickly became the targets of bitter criticism, as the rate of infection and death in the country have continued at a shockingly high level. In their defense, the ministers rather cluelessly responded with statements like, "It's not our fault; all our papers have been in order; we have the infrastructure to receive and deliver the vaccines; Covax has let us down."

Most of this response is true, but the government, especially the state-level Council of Ministers and the leadership of the Federation, was fiddling while the epidemic raged. In contrast, Serbia was getting vaccines from Russia and India—enough to start sharing with the RS and Macedonia. Here is where politics comes vividly into play: wherever the EU and the US ignore any part of the Western Balkans, that leaves an opening for (big brother) Russia to step in and exercise its political influence. And (little brother) Serbia replicates this dynamic in Bosnia, favoring the RS—but also gaining points in the Federation by being the first to donate vaccines there as well.

That is, in the past couple of weeks Serbia has donated enough vaccines to the RS to inject 20,000 people twice. And recently Serbian president Vučić, coming to meet with the three-part Bosnian presidency, personally delivered 5,000 vaccines for the Federation.

Meanwhile, in February Covax promised that vaccines would arrive in Bosnia in March. That did not happen. More recently Covax promised that it would deliver 108,000 vaccines by the end of May. Government officials stopped believing in Covax. The Minister of Civil Affairs began approaching licensed importers of medicine to begin to make other arrangements for acquisition of the vaccines. By late February the RS was starting to vaccinate medical workers, and a couple of weeks into March, RS citizens over 65 were invited to get their vaccines. Early in March the Federation was using its symbolic amount of vaccines from Serbia for medical workers as well. Slovenia promised another 4,800 vaccines for Bosnia. Serbia promised 15,000 more.

None of this portends more than symbolic levels of vaccination for Bosnia-Herzegovina, but it's a start—and the RS, due to its client relationship with Serbia, certainly one-upped the Federation this time. Meanwhile, the schools have been opened and closed, depending on the epidemic and the mood of some officials. In response to a recent closure, parents protested that it was done too quickly and without adequate preparation for the students to go online. In some cases "online learning" refers to primitive contact through Viber.

And in the second weekend of March, Sarajevo Canton announced a full-weekend lockdown, with the only institutions left open being gas stations, pharmacies and grocery stores. Owners of restaurants and nightclubs, along with professional musicians, were immediately up in arms. They protested about what they considered a draconian closure, saying that if the government was going to shut down the canton, they should also blockade entrances to it as well, thus preventing the introduction of more virus from without. They also called for subsidies to ease the financial hardship of the lockdown, saying that if no such help were forthcoming, they would have to lay off their staff en masse.

To underline their grievances, hospitality owners and workers staged several demonstrations around the city, completely shutting down traffic at some points. The lockdown went ahead.

In related news, the trial of Fadil Novalić, Fahrudin Solak, Fikret Hodžić, Jelka Miličević on charges stemming from the respirator scandal of last year began. You'll recall that Federation Prime Minister Novalić had engaged Hodžić, director of the Srebrenica-based raspberry combine, to import 100 ventilators from China. This gave rise to several accusations of scandalous import, including suspicion of rake-off since the ventilators were vastly overpriced; questions about what a raspberry company was doing importing medical equipment for which it had no license to import, and more (see here for the details).

Another question was about whether the ventilators were even usable as machines in hospitals (as opposed to short-term use in emergency vehicles). It happened that just before Novalić et al went to trial, experts finally approved the ventilators, and they were put into function—a whole year after their acquisition.

There have been questions about whether Novalić really had any responsibility for the decision to purchase the ventilators in the fishy way that was done. But the prosecutor has stated that he will prove that Novalić had authority over the acquisition, and that it was a scandal that Novalić thought up and implemented the plan during a pandemic.

Avdo Avdić pointed out, wryly, that if the crooked acquisition had been carried out by a more logical and prominent company—say, one that actually had a license for such imports—there would have been no scandal, because such behavior was standard practice and the 10.5 million KM spent on the ventilators was small potatoes compared to many other operations of corruption in the country. What was above all unexplainable, according to Avdić, was the choice of the company Srebrena Malina to do the importing. But we know that Hodžić is a neighbor, and arguably a crony, of one of the principals among the politicians involved.

The trial continues as this blog entry goes out. The prosecutor has called for Novalić's removal from office for the duration of the trial, but this has not happened.

Kozarac and the ethnic cleansing Autoput

Kozarac is a short drive from Prijedor, on the main road to Banja Luka. Before the war it was over 90% Muslim-populated, and it experienced some of the worst atrocities in the early part of the war. Many of the people who survived expulsion were driven to Omarska, Trnopolje, or Keraterm concentration camps. And after the war, for various reasons (see my book) Kozarac, along with other parts of Prijedor municipality, was the location of relatively high refugee return. Since the beginning of return just over 20 years ago, the residents of Kozarac have struggled against discrimination and economic difficulties, among other things, to rebuild their home town. Now there is a new threat.

Around the country, regional governments have slowly been modernizing the autoput, or highway system. Now it is the turn of Kozarac and the other towns and villages between Banja Luka and Prijedor. And the planned route of the new highway goes right through the villages on the outskirts of Kozarac, as well as through a number of other villages—not only Bosniak-inhabited ones—on the way. For the people of Kozarac, this feels like another assault on their livelihoods.

According to news reports, the planned route cuts some villages in half, wrecking several residences and a number of outbuildings. A significant amount of farmland will be rendered unusable. In some places, the highway would come within two or three meters of people's houses.

There have been appeals; the local residents have pointed out that the highway could be placed below the villages, in an uninhabited area where the farmland is of lesser quality. But, according to one member of the local communal council, protests have fallen on deaf ears. "It is all happening in a hurry, secretly; it feels as if we have no one to talk to. They are working as if we don't exist. "

During the war, the murders of more than 3,000 people in the municipality resulted in some 400 mass graves. Over 30,000 people passed through the concentration camps. And some 700 people from Kozarac and the surrounding villages were among those killed. Most of the houses in that town and vicinity were destroyed. One farmer said, "I lost my whole family. If they are going to do this to my land, let them kill me, too."

And for that matter, the road is not even economically a good deal for the regional government. A Chinese company is set to build it for 300 million euros, and will then charge a road toll for the next 10 years, giving the Chinese a ten-fold profit.

However, the Minister of Transportation says that the authorities "have valued practically all of the protests," and that now only a few houses are under threat. "The only thing we could do better would be if the road were somehow put in the air," he said.

Srebrenica Transcripts

The Memorial Center at Srebrenica has researched and amassed a compilation of transcripts of the words of Bosnian Serb separatist leaders as spoken during sessions of the NSRS, the Republika Srpska Parliament, before and during the war. As coordinators of the project say, young researchers, designers, and programmers have created this database of documents that are not new discoveries, but in some cases not easy to locate.

The project was undertaken in the interest of future research "of the history and crimes of Bosnian genocide...[the documents] speak of clear intentions, genocidal intentions, before the fall of Srebrenica." Among other things, they show how Radovan Karadžić, in his own words, declared that he was not sorry for what had happened at Srebrenica.

You can view a report about the project here. And here are a few segments:

"The Decision on the strategic goals of the Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina is adopted, according to which the priorities of the Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina are: state demarcation with the other two national communities; corridor (connection of territory) between Semberija and Krajina; establishing a corridor in the Drina river valley, eliminating the Drina as a border between Serbian states; establishing borders on the rivers Una and Neretva; the division of the city of Sarajevo into Serb and Muslim parts and the establishment in each of the parts of an effective state government; an exit for the Republika Srpska to the sea." (Recordings of the Assembly, May 12, 1992)

Ratko Mladić, May 1992: "Therefore, we cannot cleanse nor can we have a solution to beg only for Serbs to remain or for Serbs...and for the others to leave. Well, that's not it, I don't know how Mr. Krajišnik and Mr. Karadžić will explain to the world. It is a genocide. ”

Momčilo Krajišnik, January 8, 1993 "Well, gentlemen, we can now decide and take the position that Muslims as a people are a communist creation. We do not accept that artificial nation. We consider Muslims to be a sect, group or group, of Turkish provenance. Is there anyone else to add? None. I put all these conclusions to the vote. Who is for? Does anyone mind? Restrained? Gentlemen, thank you, we adopted the conclusions unanimously. "

Radovan Karadžić, October 15, 1995, "As the supreme commander, I stood behind the plan for Žepa and Srebrenica, for Srebrenica in general, Žepa was taken for granted. Gentlemen, we would lose the war if there was a Žepa with 90 thousand armed Muslims, we would lose the war. I personally supervised the plan without the knowledge of the General Staff, not hiding but accidentally encountering General Krstić and advising him to go straight to the city and declare the fall of Srebrenica, and later we will chase the Turks through the woods. I approved both a closer task and a radical task and I do not regret it."


Glorifying war criminals. Manipulation of the WWII history and revision of the 1990s war history

The above-noted transcripts serve as a reminder of the wartime goals of the Serb separatists. Those goals were in large part achieved, and those who split up Bosnia and created the Serb-controlled entity through genocide and plunder have been given more or less free rein to continue to enrich themselves. Along the way they have continued to keep people divided who have much in common and the most to benefit from creating a citizen-based political structure and throwing off the reign of the postwar lords. Well, so much for that...for the time being. And the postwar leaders, especially among the Serb and Croat separatists, use not only revisionism, but glorification of the war criminals, as means to keep people confused and divided.

As the Serbian saying goes, "Kad jebe lud zbunjenog..."—when the crazy fuck the confused.

And so in Bratunac, the sleazy Serbian/Bosnian Serb ultra-nationalist organization "Istočna Alternativa" (Eastern Alternative), which hails Putin and celebrates genocide, mounted posters celebrating the birthdays of Ratko Mladić and Milorad Dodik. They share the same March 12 birthday.

And so on the Croat-controlled side of Mostar, there is a street named for Jure Francetić, a trained assassin for the WWII Nazi-Croat collaborationist Ustasha movement. Puppet leader of Croatia Ante Pavelić sent Francetić to Sarajevo to organize the murderous occupation government there, and made him a lieutenant colonel. Francetić there organized the Black Legion, responsible for killing Serbs and Jews, or sending them to concentration camps.

This is who the powers that be in west Mostar choose to commemorate. Be assured that there are streets and institutions in Sarajevo named after Ustasha collaborators too! And streets and institutions in the RS named after WWII Chetnik figures.

Denialism

And so Predrag Antonijević, a Belgrade filmmaker cozy with the autocratic and genocide-denialist government of Serbia, recently made a film called "Dara iz Jasenovca"—Dara from Jasenovac, about a Serb woman who was imprisoned in the notorious Croat-run concentration camp during World War II. I won't write at length about the film, except to say that reports tell that it is banal, that it banalizes the evil of that Ustasha institution, that it portrays the Serbs as the only victims, and distorts the whole story of the Croat collaborationist participation in the Nazi undertaking.

The film is being promoted as Serbia's nomination for the Oscars—presumably as counter to a film coming out of Bosnia about the Srebrenica genocide. And in essence, it is yet another advertisement for the victim status of Serbs, that is, the promotion of a victim complex which helps to corral members of that ethnicity into a separatist body. As with any group, the nature of a victim complex is that any behavior of the victim is justified.

What I mean to share is an incident that took place during an airing of the Belgrade TV program "Good Morning Serbia," aired on the "National Happy TV" channel. Host Milomir Marić interviewed director Antonijević, who took the opportunity to reveal his opinions about things that happened during the 1990s war in Bosnia. He said, "During the war in Bosnia and the discovery of Omarska camp near Prijedor, there was an entire worldwide propaganda campaign intended to prove that there was a new era of Nazis: the Serbs. Although that camp was one where people could come and go as they pleased, they were sheltered there so that no one would kill them. They showed that thin guy who was suffering from tuberculosis, that's why he was thin. They later fed him and took him, showed him around in the circus in Europe..."

Besides creating a feeling of outrage on the part of people who are familiar with the real history of the war, such lies also make you wonder about their purpose, and who believes them. But then you think back a few months to the Trump era, and the tens of millions of people who followed him and believed his astonishing deceitfulness. Then you worry about humanity.

And Antonijević's lies pained the survivors of Omarska the other Serb-run concentration camps terribly. Some of them—Satko Mujagić, Fikret Alić (the "thin man"), and the Kozarac Association of Camp Survivors filed a complaint with the Serbian media regulatory agency, asking Happy TV to hand over the recording of the show for investigation, and for the regulatory agency to take measures against the TV channel for serious violations of responsibility for honest program contents.

Satko Mujagić said, "Lies of this type lead to discord, division, hate and conflict. Instead of helping people learn something from that past, there arises a new occasion for friction. All these years, those two [Marić and Antonijević] did not bother to find out the truth about Fikret. As a journalist, Marić is walking garbage; that was already known, and nothing can be done about that. But Antonijević insulted all the camp victims and their families, and all the dead of Jasenovac. When you think they can't go lower, they show that there is a way."
 
Satko also pointed out that "the statistics are relentless, and the deniers hate them: there were 458 people killed in Omarska, 371 in Keraterm, 90 in Trnopolje, and over 200 more taken from Trnopolje and killed at Koričanske stijene. So, 1119 concentration camp victims were killed."

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