The Jacobite: Balkans Part 2

This trip is proving to be quite an eye opener. We have had Q&A sessions with officials from several international organisations in Sarajevo. Their insights have been really valuable and have given me a much broader understanding of the situation in Bosnia. In only two days, we have met with officials from the Bosnian Parliament, World Bank, Organisation for Cooperation and Security in Europe, EU Delegation, UN Development Programme, and the Office of the High Representative. We also met students running a university radio station in Sarajevo and film makers who captured footage during the Bosnian War and the siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s. As in Dubrovnik, it was an eerie feeling to see footage of familiar sights being bombarded by Serbian shells. It was also the first time I have ever met somebody who has lived through war. I had never realised that the siege lasted for four years from 1992 to 1996. According to Wikipedia, it was the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare. It is also difficult to imagine that people lived through this year in and year out without the basic needs of heating and running water. I think the following statement made during the prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal of two Serbian generals who conducted the siege sums it up pretty well.

"The siege of Sarajevo, as it came to be popularly known, was an episode of such notoriety in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia that one must go back to World War II to find a parallel in European history. Not since then had a professional army conducted a campaign of unrelenting violence against the inhabitants of a European city so as to reduce them to a state of medieval deprivation in which they were in constant fear of death. In the period covered in this Indictment, there was nowhere safe for a Sarajevan, not at home, at school, in a hospital, from deliberate attack."

In fact, even as I write this post, I am seeing footage of the war being replayed on the Bosnian news. It confirms the fact that people here are having great difficulty moving on and accepting what happened. The students at the Sarajevo university radio station were saying that all people talk about is the war. I suppose Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats are also having great difficult forgiving the Serbs. This is difficult as they all essentially live in the same country. The ethnic differences are easy to see in the education system as well. Parents of one ethnic group refuse to send their children to a school with a majority of students from another ethnic group. It is plain to see in the media and politics as well. For example, it is common knowledge that politicians play on the ethnic divisions to gain support and votes. People from one particular ethnic group will only vote for politicians of their own ethnicity. And as much of the media is owned by political parties, they end up singing the tune of these politicians. In short, the differences are only exaggerated making reconciliation extremely difficult to achieve. This is only the problem on the ground. The high politics of the Bosnian situation is just as difficult. The consensus is that the peace agreement drawn up by the international community and which ended the Bosnian War only served to seperate the different ethnic groups. The political system is extremely complex. Bosnia has a tripartite presidency. This means Bosnia has a Serbian, Muslim, and Croat President. To complicate things further, each ethnic group have a veto power which blocks progress and slows the decision making progress. The peace agreement also gave a lot of authority to a body called the Office of the High Representative. This body reports back to a higher authority called the Peace Implementation Council consisiting of mostly representatives from Western governments. The office of the High Representative has sweeping powers and can even dismiss Bosnian officials if it so chooses. The current situation is particularly crazy. Since the 2010 elections, Bosnia still hasn't formed a government. The situation has been dragging on for four months. The Office of the High Representative could very well intervene in such a situation and force the Bosnians to form a government. However, the situation is such that Western governments are reluctant to commit more money and resources to Bosnia and the Office of the High Representative, especially when much of the focus has been on the reconstruction of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. Bosnia is in danger of becoming another forgotten war. We met an official from the Office of the High Representative today who seemed especially concerned with how things will play out if the Bosnians don't get their act together and form a government. The biggest problem is the power of the veto. The situation today for example is only the way it is because three cantons with Croat majorities in the Federation of Bosnia Herzgovina have refused to send their MPs to parliament. The Serbs in the Republic of Serbska are also causing problems and demanding more powers. Note: Bosnia is divided into two entities: The Federation of Bosnia Herzgovina and Republica Serbska.

The consensus is that the Bosnians should reform their constitution as laid out in the peace agreement made after the war. However, this would mean removing the power of veto. This is something the different ethnic groups refuse to accept as they are bent on protecting their own interests. The carrot being offered by the international community is accession to the EU. Still, this is not proving to be enough of an incentive. The feeling I have got from many of the meetings is that the international community has become frustrated with the situation in Bosnia and would even prefer to step back and leave it up to the Bosnians. This is already happening as seen by inaction on the part of the Office of the High Representative in forcing the Bosnians to form a government. The consequences of this could be severe and Bosnia could fall again into violence. This would require the interational community to send in more troops to bolster security.

So that is the situation in nutshell. I have an early start tomorrow so need sleep! We are visiting Mostar, a town which saw a lot of the fighting during the Bosnian War. I have attached some photos I took in Sarajevo over the past two days, so enjoy!