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

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You can order my book, Surviving the Peace, from publisher Vanderbilt University Press by clicking here, then click on "Buy Now." New!--April, 2024: My essay in two parts on Bosnian environmental activism here and here. Interview in the Sarajevo daily Oslobođenje here. Book reviews from 2020 and 2021 here and here.

Tuesday, September 10, 2024 Sanctions and Separatists ~ EU assistance (or not) ~ Political chameleons ~ Srebrenica ~ Fires   With summer, the 29th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide took place. Environmental activism carried on in the face of ongoing environmental aggression by international mining companies. More recently, the dangers of a changing environment made themselves ever more plain, with fires breaking out in many parts of the country. Meanwhile, the usual back-and-forth among separatists and profiteers in the political class continued like last summer's re-runs, in the face of increasingly biting sanctions levied by the US. Read More To respond to this blog, click here to e-mail me. Friday, June 7, 2024 UN Resolution on Srebrenica Genocide ~ Republika Srpska economy ~ Elections ~ Environmental activism   In May, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution to create an international day of remembrance of the Srebrenica genocide. This brings up the question: Does the truth actually contribute to reconciliation?   You'll recall from my previous blog entry that the resolution calls for the designation of July 11 as an international "Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica," to be observed by UN member states annually. The resolution also condemns genocide denial and glorification of war criminals, urges states to observe the requirements of the UN Genocide Convention, and calls on Bosnian authorities to work to find and identify the rest of the missing victims of the genocide.   The vote was originally scheduled for May 1, but was postponed to May 23. This gave time for more countries to add their co-sponsorship to the resolution, originally proposed by Germany and Rwanda. Ultimately the number of co-sponsors grew to nearly 40. It also gave time for Russia, Serbia, and representatives of the Republika Srpska to lobby in opposition to the measure... Read More Sunday, April 21, 2024 Bosnia update: EU Accession ~ Electoral Law Changes ~ UN Resolution on Srebrenica Genocide—reaction and denial   You'll recall that in my February 10 blog I mentioned the discussion between the European Commission and Bosnia that was taking place at the time. The EU had called for several conditions to be fulfilled by Bosnia before it could be approved for accession negotiations. Since then, Bosnia took care of a couple more of these requirements...   The latest in electoral law news is that High Representative Christian Schmidt, using the Bonn Powers, decreed a broad range of technical electoral laws imposing such things as scanners for ballots; video surveillance at polling stations...   In the first part of April, Germany and Ruanda introduced a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly pertaining to the genocide at Srebrenica. The resolution, to be discussed mid-April and voted on in early May, would designate July 11 as an international "Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica," to be observed by UN member states annually. The resolution also condemns genocide denial and glorification of war criminals, urges states to observe the requirements of the UN Genocide Convention... Read More Saturday, February 10, 2024 Bosnia update: Environmental activism ~ EU accession ~ RS secessionist moves   Here and there, around Bosnia-Herzegovina, ordinary citizens are mobilizing to fight industrial developments that are threatening to damage, or have already destroyed, parts of the environment where they live.   In the course of intensive research over the last month or so, I've found that there are the stirrings of a widespread movement to protect the environment in numerous local situations around the country. While the environmental movement may be starting in fragments, it has the potential to create what could become the largest and most effective mobilization since the mass movement for refugee and displaced persons return in the late 1990s Read More Saturday, November 25, 2023 Bosnia update: Secessionism ~ Corruption ~ Sanctions ~ Dodik’s Trial  Burgeoning autocracy:   The salient trend now, as usual, is RS President Dodik’s ongoing agitation for secession. Dodik resembles a masterful symphony conductor in his ability to raise and lower political tensions throughout the country on a regular basis. He is not in control of all factors, of course. There are the reactions of the international community (split between east and west) and, occasionally, domestic opinion and activism. The latter has been sparse for some years, with minor exceptions. And the response of the international community has not been effective in discouraging Dodik’s secessionist drive. At the same time, both Russia and Western officials have encouraged policies favoring Croat nationalism in the Federation... Read More Monday, September 18, 2023 Bosnia update: the ECHR decision ~ RS separatism in overdrive ~ Corruption    Here's another legal development that will be fateful for Bosnia-Herzegovina, if it has any chance of being implemented.    On August 23, the European Court for Human Rights at Strasbourg (ECHR) delivered yet another finding stating that the Bosnian political structure is anti-democratic. This is the latest in a string of such decisions starting with the Sejdić-Finci case in 2009, through the 2014 Zornić decision; the 2016 Ilijaz Pilav case; the 2016 case of Samir Šlaku; and the 2020 case of Svetozar Pudarić.    All of these previous ECHR decisions find fault with Bosnia's system of political representation as it was set up in the Bosnian constitution (Article IV of the Dayton agreement). This structure leans heavily toward ethnic primacy, leaving individual rights—and those of minorities—far behind. Ethnic domination was established by separatists during the war, and then, with the help of Richard Holbrooke and other international negotiators, it was enshrined in the Dayton constitution. Read More Friday, August 25, 2023 Bosnia update: Protests about Violence against Women ~ Ongoing RS secessionism and conflict with the OHR... In the last couple of months leading to this blog entry, at times it has looked like a crisis that's bigger than ever is taking place. But it looks like that two or three times each year. We'll see where this one leads. Violence against Women First, in the past couple of weeks Bosnia has been rocked by a series of incidents of violence against women, to the extent that ordinary people have mobilized in several places to protest the apparently unbridled endangerment of women.... Read More Sunday, June 18, 2023 Bosnia update: Corruption ~ the Stanišić and Simatović decision ~ Dodik's love affair with Russia ~ and more.   Some noteworthy news headlines have emerged in the last month or so: Prominent political officials have been arrested on corruption charges; flooding has taken place in much of Bosnia; RS President Dodik visited Russia; and the prosecution of Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović has finally come to an end after 20 years...   In the rubric of the police action named "Start," in the first part of May police and security forces in Sarajevo Canton raided more than 30 locations in an effort to target corrupt officials and their cronies. The raid was prompted as a result of information gathered when the "Sky" encryption application was deciphered...   Republika Srpska President Dodik continues to strengthen his autocracy, to present revisionist versions of wartime history, and to advocate for the secession of his Serb-controlled entity...   The appeals trial of former state security officials Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović finally finished at the end of May... Read More May 7, 2023 Bosnia Update: OHR Decree Compels Formation of Federation Government; Sebija Izetbegović Loses Credentials; Novalić Takes a Hit; More RS Secession Threats   The past month has been particularly turbulent in Bosnia-Herzegovina and full of news. The main news is that Thursday, April 27, High Representative Schmidt decreed a set of amendments to Federation law that unblock the obstacles to creation of the entity's new government. This is seven months after the October elections, and over eight years since the last new government was formed in the entity.   Between 2018 and now, the government appointed in 2014, headed by Prime Minister Fadil Novalić, remained in custodial capacity due to the refusal of the Croat nationalist HDZ party to allow a new set of ministers to take office. The HDZ was demanding that electoral regulations be modified to guarantee what they called "legitimate representation" which, in fact, meant an assurance that this Croat nationalist party's dominance would be enshrined in law. They never quite got what they wanted, and the Federation never got a new government, until the end of April... Read More March 27, 2023 Bosnia Update, Monday, March 27, 2023 Repression, Separatism, and Denial in the Republika Srpska Corruption, Diplomas; Ongoing Creation of the New Government   For some decades people have been saying that the RS is "like North Korea." This is an exaggeration, but the political and social constraints in the entity are becoming more and more repressive, as evidenced by the example above. The RS is clearly an autocracy with remarkably dishonest electoral practices (see my earlier blog entries here and here) that marginalize not only the newly minted ethnic minorities that were subject to genocide and ethnic cleansing, but also the loyal opposition. Dodik's apparent attempt at lifetime rule is sustained by near-complete control of the media and the entity's law enforcement agencies; and he plays up not only to neighboring Serbia and its autocratic ruler, but is also cozy with Vladimir Putin... Read More January 10, 2023 Bosnia Update, Tuesday, January 10, 2023 RS Day January 9; EU Accession; Jockeying for position in new government; Corruption; Property law   The most recent news in Bosnia-Herzegovina mainly stands out as symbolic, with the European Council awarding the country candidate status for accession to the European Union, and with yesterday's bombastic celebration of the Republika Srpska's founding day. Less rousing, but not much more substantive developments took place in the process of post-electoral formation of new governments at state and entity levels, as well as some movement in the RS's attempt to expropriate state-owned property for itself. The meat of the news (though not new) are the daily reports of corruption at all levels and, perhaps, the departure of the McDonald's franchise from the entire country. Read More November 27, 2022 Bosnia Update, Sunday, November 27, 2022 Independence day; Electoral blowback; No justice for Dženan; EU accession?   Thursday, November 25, was Statehood Day for Bosnia-Herzegovina. This is the anniversary of the event in Mrkonjić Grad in 1943, in the middle of World War II, when the Partisans declared that Bosnia-Herzegovina was to be an independent federal unit within the framework of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Bosnian patriots look to this date as a foundational moment in the history of the modern Bosnian state, although the country's historical roots date back almost a thousand years.   Bosniaks and some other citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina celebrate the date as Statehood Day (Dan državnosti), and the holiday is enshrined in law in the Federation, but not in the Serb-controlled Republika Srpska entity. The period around the holiday saw proclamations from pretty much every public official in the Bosniak-dominated or anti-nationalist parties, and international officials all the way up to President Biden conveyed their congratulations to the state-level presidency... Read More October 10, 2022 Bosnia Update: Corruption; Electoral Campaigning; the October 2 Elections; A Decree by HR Schmidt   Bosnia-Herzegovina's national elections took place on Sunday, October 2, and that evening, after the polls were closed but before the election's results were announced, High Representative Christian Schmidt imposed a set of laws that adjusted electoral procedures in the Federation. They also streamlined the process of post-election governmental formation, with a view to preventing political manipulation and stalling.   I'll start with some updates on corruption which, in my opinion illustrate why most people run for office in Bosnia, and then something about how one of them runs for office... Read More September 12, 2022 Overview; Electoral reform (again); Israel and Bosnia; "Crims in charge;" Elections   Bosnia-Herzegovina's national elections are approaching. The campaign period started on September 2—that is, if you don't count the entire period of politicking since the last elections two years ago. Citizens in and out of the country will vote for their parliamentary representatives and various presidents and vice presidents of cantons, entities, and the state, all up and down the ticket. What follows in this blog entry is context for the October 2 elections: an overview of conditions in the country; some discussion of ongoing electoral law controversies, and a small assortment of antics on the part of various politicians.   In an interview in early August, activist Edin Ramulić of Prijedor criticized anti-democratic practices on the part of politicians and the media that they control, saying, "In recent years we are more and more subject to the damaging influence from the larger centers, Belgrade, Banja Luka, but also Sarajevo. There are attempts to destroy good relationships between people and to nullify all the positive practices that we have established in confronting past [injustices]. One such group of extremists from Sarajevo is doing work identical to those on the other side. On the whole the media, sympathetic to those groups, more eagerly provide space to nationalist outbursts by politicians than to examples of good relations among people of different identities. The media thus give the main power to the nationalists, and in the worst case, to the masters of war. That is the way it was in the 1990s."... Read More July 31, 2022 Bosnia update: Fascism; Trends; A note about corruption; Electoral reform; Srebrenica, Prijedor, and more.   I'm going to stand by two statements from my last blog entry (June 19, 2022): 1, fascism is not dead, and 2, There's nothing new in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but long-term trends that could lead to changes continue to develop. Items from this entry will illustrate these points anew. I will discuss expressions of fascism in Bosnia; the Srebrenica and Prijedor anniversaries; the problem of accession to the EU, and recent turmoil over electoral reform.   But first, here's a vignette that eloquently depicts the essence of Bosnia's dysfunction. Just at the end of last week (July 29, 2022) the first-instance corruption trial of several members of the Bosniak nationalist party, SDA, ended. Since before the 1990s war, the SDA, founded by Alija Izetbegović and others, has been by far the most popular political party among Bosniaks. Amir Zukić was general secretary of this party for over a decade, and Asim Sarajlić was a young war hero who went on to become a political scientist, vice president of the SDA and, for over ten years, a delegate to the state-level House of Representatives... Read More June 19, 2022 Bosnia update: "Nothing happens in Bosnia"; Funding the elections; Bosnia and Croatia; Happenings in Prijedor; Fascism on May 9th.   During the last month or so, Bosnia-Herzegovina has seen a continuation of a variety of simmering problems, with one or two solutions, but no real progress.   A friend said to me the other day, "Nothing happens in Bosnia." This sounds odd given that, when observing the country day to day at the granular level, it seems that things are always about to explode. Thinking back to last fall, there were ongoing, dire predictions of war. As I wrote then, you can never rule out war. But war did not break out this spring, when it could have, and it doesn't look likely at this point.   There again, during the now waning season there have been predictions of a boycott of the upcoming elections, with many people convinced they would not take place. That outcome has now been circumvented.   And the ongoing move toward secession of the Serb-controlled entity has stalled, for the moment, notwithstanding statements that the secession is already underway...   This is not to say that nothing is really happening in Bosnia, but... Read More April 30, 2022 Bosnia update: Sanctions, creeping secession, Ukraine war, electoral machinations   In the spring of 2022 Bosnia-Herzegovina, with its permanently corrupt leadership, its beleaguered citizens, and its contending international officials of all sorts, bumps along toward an uncertain future. The secessionists keep on with their divisive work. Ordinary people are re-traumatized by the Ukraine war. The exodus continues. Meanwhile, authoritarian leaders in the vicinity of Bosnia, eager to keep Bosnia destabilized, have new wind in their sails, but some Western leaders attempt to restrain these trends.   The strongest move towards fascism in Europe today is, of course, the Russian attempt to obliterate Ukraine. Given this, the Ukrainian resistance is on the front line in pushing back against Russia, and this resistance is therefore critical to the survival of whatever passes for democracy and freedom in the rest of Europe.   This is pertinent to Bosnia-Herzegovina's near future... Read More March 22, 2022 Bosnia crisis update: Secession moves continue; War in Ukraine heightens the tension   During February and March much has happened that has an impact on Bosnia-Herzegovina. For the purpose of breaking the news down and analyzing it, I identify three subjects: the RS's ongoing project of secession from Bosnia; the Russian assault on Ukraine and its repercussions in Bosnia; and the attempts to negotiate a reform of Bosnia's electoral law. While the present situation is rendered fraught by the Ukraine war, I must start with what's going on in the Bosnian background: the secession crisis.   Čović's scandal:An incident that took place at the very beginning of February brings into high contrast the role of Croat leader Dragan Čović as collaborator with Milorad Dodik in their overlapping drives to separate their respective territories from Bosnia-Herzegovina in whatever way they can manage. The relationship between the two operators has been described as a "gentleman's agreement to support each other."... Read More January 31, 2022 Bosnia update: The "crisis" gets old, but electoral "negotiations" are hot.   January has seen a sharpening in the definition of forces trying to pull Bosnia-Herzegovina apart and those trying to keep the country together. I will examine these opposing trends through the behavior of international officials, domestic politicians, and a couple of salient public events. And as this blog entry comes out, international officials have been trying to conduct negotiations with Bosnian politicians over the "reform" of the country's electoral law.    January 14th may have been the turning point toward the winding down of the most blatant secessionist moves. On that day Dodik met in Belgrade with Serbian president Vučić, who told Dodik that he and other Bosnian Serb officials ought to resume participation in state-level institutions... Read More January 1, 2022 Bosnia crisis update: Possibilities for resolution—or not.   In the past month, some aspects of the current crisis* have become clarified. Players are jockeying into their advantageous positions. That doesn't mean it's (ever) possible to predict what's going to happen in the next few months, but it's a bit more possible to outline a couple of scenarios.   One of the ways that the argument breaks down is between people who are convinced there will be a war, and everyone else. By "everyone else" (and I include myself), I mean people who think there might not be a war, because there are other possible outcomes. I would say no one who's serious can categorically say there won't be a war... Read More December 2, 2021 Bosnia crisis update: More of the same, but moving toward a fatal deal on "electoral reform." As I review my last blog entry, of  October 17, what leaps out at me is that there's really not so much news, in spite of the "crisis." There's a bit of theater, and an abundance of sniping by one politician at another. Add to that the meaningless phrases churned out by international officials, and you see that in the last month and a half, positions are about the same—with both Bosnian and international commentators warning about a dire outcome nevertheless.    You'll recall that after outgoing High Representative Inzko decreed new criminal laws against genocide denial and glorification of war criminals, Serb officials led by President Milorad Dodik began to boycott state-level institutions of the government, including the three-part presidency, the Parliament, and the Council of Ministers. Additionally, the Republika Srpska Parliament outlawed the public use of the word "genocide" in the entity, along with any "defamation" of the RS... Read More October 17, 2021 Continuing RS boycott of state-level functions; heightened threat of secession A lot has happened since my last blog entry came out. You'll remember from my previous blog that the outgoing High Representative, Valentin Inzko, had decreed an addition to Bosnia's criminal statute to the effect that no one may deny the Srebrenica genocide, nor may anyone glorify war criminals in any way. The new law applies not only to convicted Serb war criminals in the 1990s war, but also to war criminals of any other ethnicity.    In response, Milorad Dodik, leader of the strongest Serb party (SNSD) and member of the three-part state-level presidency, announced a boycott of state functions. He was supported in this by other Serb officials and the entire Serb opposition in the Republika Srpska. His demand was to roll back Inzko's decrees. At the same time, he and other Serb officials refused to recognize the legitimacy of the appointment of the new High Representative, Christian Schmidt.    What ensued was an ever-escalating series of threats and obstructions... Read More August 29, 2021 Updates: Repercussions of Inzko's anti-denial decree; Response to arrival of new High Representative Schmidt; Corona After Inzko's July 23 decrees, the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska (NSRS) met quickly to create laws rejecting them. One law directly rejected the ban on genocide denial. Dodik, as president of the dominant Serb nationalist party SNSD, announced, "I would absolutely go to jail before admitting something that didn't happen, the alleged genocide in Srebrenica."    The NSRS passed a second law prohibiting anyone in the RS from calling the entity a "genocidal creation;" disrespecting the RS flag or other symbols; criticizing the independence of the RS; or calling the Serb people or military the "aggressor" with respect to the events of the 1990s war. These offenses draw a jail term of up to 15 years. All Serb parties—SNSD and opposition—voted in favor of the new laws... Read More July 31, 2021 Inzko's anti-denial decree; Srebrenica and Prijedor commemorations; Stanišić & Simatović verdict...   There's big news from Bosnia: the outgoing High Representative has decreed a new law punishing genocide denial and related crimes.   In the month between my last blog and Inzko's decree there were a number of events and incidents that I'll try to recount briefly first, since I consider them all background and context to the decree. ...You'll remember from my last blog entry (June, 2021) that High Representative Valentin Inzko is resigning (today, August 1) from the post that he's held since 2009. I have discussed his conflict with the Republika Srpska Parliament (NSRS), which honored several convicted war criminals who were instrumental in the founding of the entity. Inzko demanded that the NSRS revoke the awards, but the Parliament pushed back and Inzko was rebuffed.   In the bigger picture, war crimes denial and glorification of war criminals, which I have described many times in many of their manifestations, have been ongoing since the first crimes were committed at the beginning of the war. The denial has, naturally, upset and often retraumatized the victims of the war crimes and the survivors of genocide.... Read More June 16, 2021 Appointment of a new High Representative; Conviction of Ratko Mladić; Denial offensive; Corona update;  Response to Israeli violence New High Representative   Of late there have been several news episodes that have, each in its time, temporarily blocked out just about all other news from Bosnia-Herzegovina. One of these was the appointment of the German politician Christian Schmidt as next High Representative, due to take office at the beginning of August. He will replace the Austrian Valentin Inzko, who has been HR since 2009.   The Office of the High Representative (OHR), set up at Dayton, is responsible for interpreting and enforcing that agreement. The HR is the final arbiter and thus something like a viceroy over an international protectorate. However, BiH is only a protectorate to the extent that the international community, as represented by the PIC (Peace Implementation Council), deigns to be involved. Otherwise, the domestic leaders of the country are free to pursue their own course—generally a corrupt and undemocratic one. Read More May 4, 2021 The elusive and provocative "non-paper" that proposes to re-draw borders; more glorification of war criminals; the danger of a spurious "electoral reform." The biggest news from Bosnia-Herzegovina lately is this: the "non-news" of the infamous "non-paper" that almost no one has seen.    There's a trend lately of people and governmental institutions issuing unofficial position papers and policy proposals related to Bosnia and the surrounding ex-Yugoslav countries. The most notorious and provocative of these came to light in the first half of April after Slovenian President Borut Pahor met with the three members of Bosnia's state-level presidency. In that meeting, he asked if a peaceful dissolution of Bosnia were possible.    The three members responded as follows, and I paraphrase freely: Croat member Željko Komšić shook his fist and said, "Not a chance!!"  Bosniak member Šefik Džaferović said, "Um, I don't suppose so." Serb member Milorad Dodik said, "Sure, why not?"... Read More March 15, 2021 Updates: Srebrenica elections, Corona, Kozarac autoput, resurgence of denialism, and more. Srebrenica elections: The tangled mess that was the municipal election in Srebrenica—November 15, repeated on February 21—has come to a sorry end... Corona: After an agonizing delay, vaccinations have started to arrive in both entities. The RS has gotten a significant head start on the Federation. 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... 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... 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... Read More February 13, 2021 Updates on many topics: Corona, migrants, the icon scandal, OHR stirs, and more.    Corona: Nearly 5,000 people have died of Covid-19 in Bosnia. As of this weekend the per capita death rate for Bosnia-Herzegovina, at some 1,493 per million, is just higher than that of the United States. However, the daily infection rate has decreased, and is presently around half of what it was during a surge in mid-autumn...    The Icon Scandal: You'll remember that in December, Serb member of the state-level presidency Milorad Dodik created a scandal by presenting Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov with a 300-year-old gilded icon as a gift. The scandal was that there was a strong possibility that it was not Dodik's to give away. There were varying stories about the provenance of the icon....    OHR News: In last month's entry I mentioned two things about the Office of the High Representative and its leader, Valentin Inzko. First, that Inzko may be replaced soon (after being in office since 2009), and second, that he has called for entry of a "third phase" of relations between Bosnia-Herzegovina and the international community, where the IC returns to a more robust interventionary approach... Read More January 2, 2021 Judiciary capture. The international community comes back(?). Russia. Corona. Mostar.    There's more news than ever from Bosnia this last month. I'll start right in with an update on the judiciary, a matter headlined in my last blog entry (December 7). The big news is that Milan Tegeltija, president of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), has stepped down. See my previous entry for a fuller description of what happened, but Tegeltija's second major scandal—again involving "abuse of power"—brought him down. After he denied his crime and calling the affair a frame-up, other members of the HJPC leaned towards supporting Tegeltija's resignation.    After retreating to Banja Luka, Tegeltija resigned... Read More January 1, 2021 The Dayton agreement on its 25th anniversary   The last couple of months of 2020 were the 25th anniversary of the Dayton agreement, drafted in Ohio in November, and signed in Paris the next month. In observance of this round anniversary. commentators by the dozens have described the agreement, the constitution contained therein, and the chaotic, dysfunctional state that has resulted.   In that vein, I wrote the essay below for the Society for Threatened Peoples (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker) based in Göttingen, Germany. The Society used part of this in a report comprising the statements of a half-dozen analysts which you can read here—but only in German. * If the European Union and the international community at large are to help Bosnia-Herzegovina, leaders must focus their attention, re-affirm "European values," and implement measures that make a difference. Otherwise, the only thing Europe has to offer Bosnia is chaos.... Read More December 7, 2020 Scandal #2 in the High Judicial & Prosecutorial Council; Review of the November 15 elections    There's more news than usual this month. This has not only to do with the municipal elections that were held on November 15; there's also a brand new scandal in the judiciary system, and there are rare signs of life from the OHR. I'll start with the judiciary.    You might remember that there was a scandal involving the president of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) last year (see my report here). The HJPC is an independent body whose responsibility is to supervise the functioning of Bosnia's judicial system, to raise its standards and improve the rule of law, and to appoint and supervise competent judges and prosecutors at all levels... Read More To respond to this blog, click here to e-mail me. November 13, 2020 Bosnian elections; Dayton Anniversary; brief updates on Corona, Migrants There are two important dates pertaining to Bosnia-Herzegovina this month. One is the municipal elections, scheduled for this Sunday, November 15. Elections usually happen in October, but this year they were postponed because of the pandemic. The other date is the anniversary of the Dayton agreement, which was initialed in that city on the first of November in 1995, and formally signed in Paris on December 14. A variety of commemorative events are scheduled for this whole month.    First, the elections... Read More October 13, 2020 Updates; Elections; The RS and separatism; Crims in Charge    The state of Bosnia-Herzegovina continues to rattle along like a VW on three cylinders. Bosnia's failings are manifested in the usual ways: lack of state-level coordination on most problems, especially the Corona epidemic and the influx of migrants. The bi-annual Festival of Dysfunctionality known as the elections (this time at the municipal level) was postponed a month and will take place on November 15, with attending malversation from all sides. And the country's profiteering, nationalist leaders continue to find ways to keep their constituencies separate from each other, with Dodik leading the way in new separatist pronouncements.    On the migrant scene, it never gets better, but keeps getting worse. The onset of cold winter always portends more misery for the travelers. And lately, tension has led to violence among the migrants.  Local (Bosnian) residents in places where there are concentrations of migrants are feeling high levels of stress as well... Read More September 4, 2020 A book review; Corruption in the Prosecutorial Office; Corona update; Mladić's appeal; and more    As the summer winds up, here's a bit of an overview with the latest on the corona epidemic in Bosnia; a fresh scandal involving the Chief Prosecutor; some migrant news; the Mladić appeal; and upcoming elections. But first, I'll mention a review of my book.   Book review by Marko Attila Hoare In mid-August the scholar and Bosnia historian (among other things) Dr. Marko Hoare published the first (to my knowledge) serious review of my book. You can see it here. For the most part it is very positive, I'm glad to note. I'm just going to address a couple of points here... Read More August 12, 2020 Prijedor anniversaries; Rewarding war criminals; Corona update   This past month has not been a newsy time in Bosnia-Herzegovina. That's probably a good thing, since most news these days seems to be bad. So the present blog entry will be an update on some commemorations and some low-grade news that's taken place since I last wrote.    Prijedor   July and August are customarily the time of commemorations in Prijedor municipality, as the anniversaries of several important war-time events fall in this period, for example, the massive attack on the Bosniak settlements on the Left Bank of the Sana where at least 1500 people were killed in a few days; the revelation of the concentration camps; and the eventual disbanding of the worst of those camps, including the one at Omarska. Read More July 11, 2020 Srebrenica anniversary; Coronavirus update Srebrenica    Today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica, which set off the genocidal massacres of the Muslim inhabitants of that enclave. The official number of those killed is 8,372. Of those, nearly 7,000 remains have been exhumed from mass graves and identified, with another thousand still missing. As of today, families of 6,652 victims have seen their loved ones reburied at the memorial cemetery at Potočari, with some others interred in other places.    Since 2003 annual commemorative funerals have been conducted at Potočari on July 11 of each year. The largest funeral, which I attended, took place in 2010 with 775 people put to rest at that time. Read More June 10, 2020 The epidemic and accompanying scandals, continued    For many of us, contending with restrictions stemming from the corona pandemic, work or no work, and widespread protests, it's a busy and complicated time. It is a time of change throughout the world, and possibly even in Bosnia-Herzegovina.    The numbers of infected and of fatalities in Bosnia have risen roughly 60% since I last wrote: today they stand at 2,775 infections and 161 deaths. For a country whose population is probably about twice that of the greater Seattle area, it could be a lot worse. Here in King County, the latest death count (growing very slowly) is approaching 600.    After a fairly strict clampdown on movement and social contact throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina... Read More April 29, 2020 The epidemic continues; scandals arise In Bosnia-Herzegovina it seems that all the news is still about the coronavirus. But if you look a bit closer you see that the epidemic is just a veil over everything else that has already been happening and continues to happen: the corruption and madness of domestic Bosnian politics; the travails of the African and Asian migrants attempting to travel further into Europe; and the dysfunctional relationships of the small states of the region, ever at the whim of empire. All these dynamics are still playing out. Sometimes they are distorted by the pandemic, sometimes they are slowed down, and sometimes they are accelerated. Read More March 31, 2020 The Coronavirus epidemic hits Bosnia-Herzegovina It's time to write about the Coronavirus in Bosnia-Herzegovina. There is, after all, hardly any other news from there. People argue about whether the worldwide calamity that the Coronavirus brings on is a "war" or not. Ok, it's not a war...because it's not. But it sure reminds me of one in some ways. As during a war, the present crisis brings out the best and the worst in people. You can't necessarily predict who will behave well and who will behave badly. I believe that most people are good and want to help each other. Sometimes you can find that even a few political officials will behave well. And then, there are those (politicians and civilians) who won't, or can't. Read More March 10, 2020 Dodik's latest "crisis": RS officials to boycott state-level decision-making    In the last 15-odd years, one of the most ironic statements you can hear about politics in Bosnia-Herzegovina is that there is a crisis underway. I remember that in 2007, about a year after Milorad Dodik became prime minister of the Serb-controlled entity, he brought political functions in Bosnia to a halt. Everyone said it was a "crisis." Then Dodik backed off. There was another Dodik-engineered crisis about one thing or another approximately every year or year and a half after that, each one ending with Dodik easing off. Eventually, it became clear that Dodik was, for his own political benefit, playing the national mood like a symphony violinist, and that the crisis was not an episodic thing, but a permanent one.    It was, and is, the permanent dysfunctionality of the political structure of Bosnia as crafted by the Dayton agreement and the Constitution it contains. In a way, this problem was summed up recently by former High Representative Christian Schwartz-Schilling, who wrote, "Dayton turned Bosnia-Herzegovina into an ungovernable state." Read More February 1, 2020 Chetnik provocations in Srebrenica, and related news Around the beginning of January, members of the Ravna Gora Chetnik Movement (Ravnogorski Četnički Pokret) carried out provocative actions in Srebrenica and two other Bosnian cities. The organization, with operational centers both in Serbia and the Republika Srpska, is an unreformed Serb nationalist organization with fascist leanings that honors the memory of Serb war criminals Radovan Karadžić, Ratko Mladić, and (from World War II) Draža Mihailović. For these people, who consider themselves the military arm of the Serb separatist movement, the war of the 1990s is not over, but only temporarily interrupted. Read More January 11, 2020 Fun and games in Bosnian politics National parliamentary and state-level elections took place in Bosnia-Herzegovina in early October, 2018. But the new government based on that election's results was only formed last month, more than a year after the election. Why did it take so long? Read More Sunday, December 8, 2019 SCANDAL IN THE SWEDISH ACADEMY A scandal broke in mid-October when the Swedish Academy awarded the Austrian writer Peter Handke the Nobel Prize for Literature. The award is scandalous because Handke is a genocide denier and supporter of extreme Serbian nationalism. Both his writing and his behavior have demonstrated this to be true. Read More    First blog, Friday, November 29, 2019 Corruption in Srebrenica There was news out of Srebrenica this month that illustrates the entire dysfunction reigning in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It goes like this: ● In late 2017 Serbia donated a million euros to the municipality of Srebrenica in the Republika Srpska (the Serb-controlled "entity") for economic development—specifically, to create a business complex in the Srebrenican suburb of Potočari (of wartime notoriety as the location of the UN Dutchbat base, and where local inhabitants took refuge when the enclave fell). Read More

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