Fascism instead of Communism

Balkan Illusions:

There are only two possible explanations for what happened in Mostar, Trebinje and Banja Luka. The representatives of the international communityare either blind and incompetent or, a project of maintaining long-term instability and destruction in the region is taking place

AIM Sarajevo, May 9, 2001

The paradox concerning the truth about what is really going in Bosnia and Herzegovina has reached its climax. Accustomed to wrong (simply wrong?) assumptions and hollow promises of the international community, worn-out local guinea-pigs of international politics are awe struck when a statement turns out to be true. The example of the British ambassador to B&H Graham Hand is particularly illustrative in this respect. Just a few days before the incidents in Trebinje and Banja Luka, in an interview to Dani, the ambassador stated he was "more concerned with circumstances in the Republic of Srpska than with events in Herzegovina." Many found this point of view to be surprising.

To be sure - notwithstanding Trebinje and Banja Luka - Hand was absolutely right, but his statement would have continued to cause wonder both in the local and the international public, were it not for the recent happenings of the two fascist-like "crystal days".

All in all, the consistence of "mistaken" evaluations of the B&H reality are becoming more and more daunting. After being evacuated from Banja Luka with the help of NATO forces, the "strongman" of the international community in the Balkans, Jacques Klein, somehow managed to repeat phrases such as "minor groups of extremists" and "individuals responsible for the incident in Banja Luka". So, that is what we are dealing with here: minor groups and individuals. Klein's assessment was followed by a host of similarly intoned statements coming from political figures of the international community, all of which compellingly pointed to a single dilemma. Are we witnessing a complete lack of realism and political ignorance and dilettantism on the part of the representatives of the international community (which, in itself, would be a lesser problem) or are we, perhaps, facing something much more ominous: a precise and thorough strategy of further fragmentation and destabilization of the region, a planned "low-intensity crisis" (B&H, Kosovo, Macedonia) , i.e. are we, in fact, talking about various global interests, the analysis of which would require hundreds of pages? If the truth is to be said, all those hundreds of pages could be reduced to a single sentence recently uttered by Ferid Muhic, an university professor from Skopje: "At present, the concept of multinational states and civic societies in the Balkans, is being ultimately compromised."

If, merely out of respect for the high price paid in human lives, we let ourselves suppose that the mentioned mistakes of the international community present in the Balkans were unintentional and not a result of a conspiracy and a premeditated project of destruction, one fact still seems to be certain: Pandora's box of fascist evils looming over the region was opened by the Americans, notwithstanding the ceremonies in honor of May 9, celebrating the victory of democracy. For decades fanatically opposed to communism as the arch-enemy of the free world and at the same time unwilling to sacrifice any of "its guys" for the ultimate cause of defeating the enemy, the free world managed to encourage nationalists, chauvinists, totalitarians and fascists, offering "democratic legitimacy" to many of them. Legions of black hordes were harnessed to fight the war against communism, even in cases when the communism they were fighting against did not exist. Communism was defeated, fascism remained. Today, it is a fact of life in Serbia, Croatia, Kosovo, B&H, Macedonia... If judged by the true consequences of all this, the present decade in the region can hardly be compared to any other.

Hand in hand with the Americans, poor Europe, incapable of harmonizing its own inner organization, let alone of growing out of its handicaps, prejudices, false myths, elitism bordering on racism, colonialism and minor and major interests having to do with the "Balkan project", tagged behind. Foolishly and naively believing that the night the Berlin wall fell was the very night democracy came to "South-Eastern Europe", they swooped down towards the south in an attempt to seize as many as possible "spheres of interest" in which to form their new colonies. Naturally, things did not turn out as expected. Chanting in unison about united Europe when together, when on their own, each and every one of those belonging to this prosperous European rose-garden would secretly crack sarcastic jokes on account of the other, succumbing to old myths. Local political criminals have been playing that card brilliantly for over a decade.

The yarn about "extremists" in Banja Luka and Trebinje and those in Mostar (let us not forget the supposedly spontaneous midnight throngs of protestors in Sarajevo as a response to what happened in Banja Luka and the bombing of the church in Sanski Most), is at best half-true and either a result of bad judgment or the outcome of a conscious attempt to falsify reality. These extremists, after all, represent merely the tip of the iceberg. The true problem being the ever wide-spread conviction that Bosnia and Herzegovina is just a provisional arrangement and that the "proper" solution, the one Milosevic and Tudjman fought for, willingly or unwillingly whole-heartedly helped by Izetbegovic, will sooner or latter, come to pass. The true problem in Republika Srpska are not the extremists or individuals Klein mentions. The problem is that the great majority of people there - ordinary, utterly upright and truly decent people - believe that the entity they live in is a state in the proper sense of the word and that the rest of B&H is merely in some sort of a transient and shaky association with the true and authentic state of theirs, their sole and true homeland being on the other side of the river Drina. That is why they are such fervent fans of the soccer teams of Zvezda and Obilic, why they find even the radio weather forecast for Belgrade or the prices on the open market in Sabac and the announcements where the folk stars like Ceca and Dzej are apppearing, so overwhelmingly interesting. As civil and as politically correct as they come, the foreigners - unwilling to hurt anyone's "democratic feelings" and "historic sentiments" - never openly told them that what they took for granted was simply not true. Untrue even in regard to what was written down in the Dayton Agreement, the basic document on the organization and division of B&H. Even if, at some point, someone ever told them what the whole truth was at a closed session in Washington or some such American resort reserved for having barbecue with the barbaric Balkan nations, the citizens of Republika Srpska would never have managed to grasp the truth that they are not and never will be inhabitants of a veritable state and a country recognized by the international community. No more or less than Herzegovina or the Sarajevo-Zenica Muslim entities, parts of a state and country called Bosnia and Herzegovina happen to be. No wonder these people find themselves utterly amazed when someone tries to rebuild a mosque in the very center of the capital of a state they believe belongs solely to them. Blown out of proportion as this may seem, this is exactly how things stand.

Of course, if they are ever to manage to tell the leaders and the people of Republika Srpska, or anyone else, what they want to tell them, the foreigners will have to agree among themselves first. It is becoming truly discouraging to take part in the project of erecting a building wherein, every now and then, a scoundrel, openly or secretively, pulls out a crucial brick out of its foundation, while the "construction inspector" pretends not to have seen anything or, even worse, threatens to punish the rascal only to do nothing in the end. As a result, one jerk encourages the next one. Thus, the emboldened Serb Democratic Party (SDS), better than anyone and anything else, inspires the Jelavics, just as some Jelavics openly let the "extremists from Banja Luka" know there is nothing to be afraid of, since a "papier-mache tiger" will forever remain just a "papier-mache tiger".

A frustrated foreigner, a rare species in these parts of the world, recently recounted his impression that "in Trebinje, the presence of Karadzic is almost tangible in the air. It is as if he lived there, as if the spirit of the man was embodied in that town..." Incidentally, how come Karadzic has not been arrested yet? Is what we are dealing with here merely a coincidence or are we witnessing the unraveling of a scenario meant to show that he is but another "extremist", meaning there is no great cause for uneasiness? Unfortunately, none of this is a question of assumptions. What we are dealing with here are indisputable facts. What is disputable is the unwillingness to face them. If mere naivete was the problem, we would still have a chance.

ZLATKO DIZDAREVIC

(AIM Sarajevo)