RECIPE FOR THE DEFENCE OF B&H

The example of common life characteristic of the city of Tuzla and unusual in the existing B&H situation draws attention not only of the international public but likewise of domestic nationalistic elites to whom Tuzla is proof of the unsustainability of their idea that it is impossible and impermisible to live together. How and why has Tuzla, in spite of the pressures and of the unfavourable environment succeeded in holding out as a multi-ethnic community. The derioration of the economic and social situation is resulting in ever more expressed unfavourable effects on the political climate, so it is far from certain how long the existing municipal civic oriented authories will be able to resist the nationalistic leaders. This also depends on the international community and the assistance it is ready to offer the municipal authorities.

AIM, TUZLA, December 17, 1993

In times of overwhelming divisions and intra-ethnic intolerance, the example of common life in Tuzla - or to quote the slogan of the Reformists: " Bosna is best defended in the Tuzlanian manner" - represents an unusual example that is arresting increasing attention of the international public. Unfortunately this "oasis of peace" in B&H is the constant preoccupation of domestic nationalistic elites, since it opposes and denies, in concrete form, their fascist idea that it is impossible or unallowable to live together, as well as that unsurmountable walls should be built between our souls. The international community, owing to their divided stands in respect to the solution of the B&H crisis, is once again calmly watching how the Balkan warriors are announcing disaster, or as they call it the "liberation" of Tuzla. In the process they are neglecting, as they have done so in the case of the whole of B&H, the facts that make this city what it is - a city of Bosnians and Herzegovinians. Tuzla is an industrial city in North-East Bosnia which saw with the coming of Austria-Hungary, 110 years ago, the development of the chemical,machine-building and mining industries. It experienced a period of extremely rapid growth in the last fifty years, during which its population increased tenfold, from 14,000 to 130,000 inhabitants, and when it became,in Balkan proportions, the centre of a quite developed region, with,for example, the oldest theatre house in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The national composition of the city is in line with the ethnic pattern of the region, implying an ethnic diversity, with a population made up of, according to the 1991 census, 44% Muslims, 15% Serbs, 15% Croats, 22% Yugoslavs, 4% in the category of others and a very large percent of so called ethnically mixed marriages.

As a curiosity, in the first twelfe months of the war,out of the total number of marriages entered into in Tuzla, 22% were mixed ones. Today, while the war is being waged,a large number of associations of citizens of foreign descent is being established, so that a few hundred descendants of Italian origin, over a thousand Czechs and Slovaks, about 250 Slovenians have been registered, as well as 90 members of the Jewish community.Perhaps this is partly the explanation of the large percentage of those who have declared themselves as Yugoslavs according to the last census. At the multi-party elections in 1990, the greatest number of votes was given to the civic-oriented parties - as much as 70 percent of the votes - while the Reformists of B&H, the party of the then prime minister, Ante Markovic, today the Social Democratic Union, received 35% of the votes. By these results, Tuzla is unique in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It goes without saying that the reasons for such election results are numerous, however some of the most important ones could be the social structure of the population, to the main part blue collar; then the historical tendency towards, conditionally speaking, leftism and social democracy ( as early as the last century, the workers Husinje rebellion took place, and their multi-nationality was defended by the originator of the idea that the Bosnians are a separate nationality - Hussein Kapetan Gradasevic with his multi-ethnic units); Tuzla being an urban environment in which migratory trends have not been significant in the last decade; and in which the exceptionally large industrial and mining communities represented an ideal "melting pot" in respect to the hardly perceivable ethnic differences, but which also witnessed the conflict within the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), i.e., between Izetbegovic and Zulfikarpasic, which was most pronounced in the Tuzla branch of the mentioned Party. At that time Ante Markovic, the federal prime minister visited Tuzla on three occasions during the pre-elections campaign. The post elections civic authorities in Tuzla had a crucial effect on the position of the city in the war. Considering that there were no representatives of the disloyal Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) among those in power, the civic authorities could carry out the required preparations, without fear of sabotage, for the defence of the city, while the marginal position of the national parties prevented the creation of ethnic tensions, so pronounced in other parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The presence of a strong garrison of the Yugoslav Army in the city forced the city authorities to make very tactful and cautious preparations for the war, so that the process of the evacuation of the Yugoslav Army from Tuzla began relatively painlessly, without any conflicts of greater proportion with the exception of a clash between the Yugoslav Army and a small unit of the then Patriotic League. The excellent defence of the city had as a result, when the Yugoslav Army attempted with the last formations which were allegedly leaving the city to actually occupy Tuzla, the first disastrous defeat of the Yugoslav Army on the soil of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to the information they made public, about 150 soldiers of the agressor forces were killed, a few hundred were wounded while the majority was expulsed from the city with the exception of a few severely wounded soldiers who were admitted for treatment in the hospitals in Tuzla. At that time, dozens of volunteers from Tuzla and a few units from the neighbouring communes were armed with the seized and confiscated weapons. The conflict between the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and the Army of B&H in the spring of 1993 completely blocked off Tuzla closing thus the southern corridor through which Tuzla was supplied with necessities. The supplies of food, drugs, fuel,materiel, raw materials for the industry were naturally completely used up during the remaining months of war, so that the in last few weeks the city is virtually faced with imminent disaster. The UNHRC is solely concerned with the distribution of food to refugees from Eastern Bosnia to whom Tuzla gave refuge, however, the monthly schedule of food supply never exceeded 70% of the needed quantities, while today the volume is down to a mere 20 - 30 percent. Due to the fact that UNPROFOR convoys can no longer reach this city, all the shops have been empty for quite some time now. Without oil and explosives, the production of coal, and thereby, of electric power has been reduced to the minimum, so there is electricity only during one half of the day with very grim prospects. Actually the main problem faced by the citizens of Tuzla is poverty. The families of soldiers receive montly rations which were a monthly supplement when the war began, and are now all the food they have.

From the outset of the war, workers have been working for a monthly salary of 5 DEM, when it was possible to buy something for that amount, since a litre of cooking oil cost 2.7 DEM, a kilo of sugar 1.6 DEM, while today a litre of edible oil costs 18 DEM, and a kilo of flour 6 DEM. The municipal third survival programme - as it is called - is aimed at providing energy, food and utilities until spring, but as things stand, has the chance of securing only the latter items,, while the supply of food still depends on the results of the Geneva talks, the opening of the " blue route" to the North or South, awarding Tuzla the same status as Sarajevo, as well as the final opening of the city airport. Parallel with the deterioration of the socio-economic situation the political climate in the city is also becoming more and more unfavourable. While Tuzla is still under the rule of the municipal,civic-oriented government, the surroundings, namely the discrict of Tuzla is firmly in the hands of the SDA. Regardless of how irrational, but in effect logical, the tensions between these two options, civil and national, have not lessened during the war, but on the contrary are constantly growing. On the one hand, the atrocious genocide against the Muslims, to which there was only a very meak, actually symbolic reaction of the official European policy, brought about the homogenization of that people and a xenophobic attitude towards everyone, including the non-Muslim inhabitants of Tuzla. Such individuals which were a close majority in the city before the war, are at present, owing to nearly 60.000 refugees that have arrived to Tuzla, a distinct minority.

In the free zone of the Tuzla region, which is to the main part Muslim, owing the to the arrival of about 150.000 exiles, this has become even more evident. On the other hand, the SDA, by the very nature of the party (national as opposed to civic or unsuccessful as opposed to successfull) sees civic Tuzla as a danger to its future, and almost choses no means to bring down those in power in Tuzla. Constantly exploiting the tragedy of the Muslims for manipulation, encouraging feelings of hostility against non-muslims - namely towards the Serbs from the very outset of the war and towards Croats from the beginning of the conflict with them - as well as against ethnically mixed marriages from the time of its establishment, but also Muslims atheists. The prevailing circumstances were fertile soil for such a campaign - the rule in the district was in their hands, the mass media (the central and district radio and television stations, the newspaper "Zmaj od Bosne" and as of recent the student paper "Kratki spoj" are also under their control; they have all the required material and financial support, funds from foreign countries are transferred to their party leaders, they buy "food for people", or to be more precise, they buy people with food. On the other hand, the civilian authorities have no support either from the Republic or from abroad. Even if someone writes something favourable about Tuzla, due to the break of communications no one hears about it in this city. Foreign humanitarian agencies and international organizations manifest their strict neutrality in such a way that no one has access to their sophisticated wireless communications facilities.

Naturally, the SAD do not need them, it has its own, while newspapers inclined to the civic option do not have sufficient funds to come out on a regular basis. The fact that there is no conflict here between the Muslims and Croats is not exploited sufficiently, while the authorities, although they have the support of the Army, avoid to rely excesively upon it. In spite of all this, Tuzla remains a multi-ethnic community with a local government which is resolutely committed to the defence of the civilian character of the city of Tuzla. How long will it persevere does not depend solely on the domestic impudent nationalists but on the international community which must not surrender the city of Tuzla to them.

IGOR RAJNER