AMNESTY FOR RUNAWAY CITIZENS OF SARAJEVO?

CRUSADE AGAINST THE RETURNEES

What used to be rage and a vocabulary rich with curses, when runaways among public figure were even mentioned, are nowadays replaced almost by indifference and cynism of a dog which withdraws into privacy to lick its wounds. But, that the crusade against the returnees will be led mostly by the ambitious but icompetent who have used the war to promote themselves, is fairly certain.

AIM, Sarajevo, June 17, 1994 A while ago, after being absent for as long as the siege lasted, suddenly, actress Jasna Beri appeared in Sarajevo. Aghast, walking down the streets stray as a being from outer space, she bumped into a famous designer, young Bojan Hadzihalilovic, and with an expression perfectly in accordance with her behavior in general, she asked him: "And when did you come back?" This incidence, bizarre regarding the fact that Bojan had spent the entire war in Sarajevo creating some of the best things in modern European graphic design, reminds by its characterization of an example from the beginning of the war. Professor Zdravko Grebo, having returned to the city (to the surprise of many) after his first exit into "free Europe", told the story that almost everyone he met abroad, asked him the same question: "And when did you run away?"

Both questions could be observed from the aspect of universality, but between them lies a vastness of two long war years. During that time, those who fled and those who never returned because they had not gone anywhere in the first place, had hardly comparable experiences, each of them with its specific weight and logic determined by subconscious brands of what they had gone through. And yet, during these two years, the ones talked about the others. Just like those who have fled (not the refugees, but those who consciously and by their own free will left Sarajevo after the first sounds of the war drums) often had their (former?) city on their minds, one of the favourite subjects we "inside", discussed during endless nights by candlelight were those who had gone, who, according to their prewar image, were not just anybody, even if in internal circles.

There are no more shells, the life in Sarajevo is slowly, although artificially, going back to normal, and more and more often one of those who have more or less fled or fled altogether can be seen in the streets. The issue of their return has arisen again, and it seems that the main turmoil and the sensitivity of its resolution is yet to come. Should those who wish to be allowed to return now, and, if the answer is affirmative, under what conditions?

The answer lies only partially in the legal procedure, that is in the manner military laws are regulated, which by simple logic of an attacked state treat almost all refugees as deserters, liable to very severe criminal sanctions. The recently shyly publicly mentioned possibility of general amnesty for the deserters started sharp and justified disapproval of the members of the Army of B&H. But, more and more often, it can be heard from the centers of power that this state needs "fresh" men, meaning those who are not, at least directly, burdened by war traumas and who can, with such energy, play one of the key roles in the postwar reconstruction of Bosnia&Herzegovina.

Therefore, it can be expected with high probability that the laws will take a sufficiently flexible position and enable a near as possible and comparatively painless return to a large number of public figures who wish to do so. Of course, the criteria for determining the possibility of their return will be controversial. It should not be possible to enable, more than the laws themselves, its determination on the basis of personal affinities of the eminence grise in the authorities. That they will often be used as pawns in political and financial games and by the media is something these returnees will have to accept at once. Thus, for instance, Dino Merlin can be seen in the city streets again lately, as one of the most disliked or adored figures in Sarajevo - depending on the sociological, political, and even ethnic angle you choose to observe the whole thing from.

The real problems of the returnees will be reflected through the psychological barrier in their communication with the "war" natives. That is the reason why the anecdote mentioned in the introduction will be symptomatic. Just as the "runaways", pacifying their flustered consciences in the beginning of the war tried to reduce the picture of the world to the logic of their departure, now they are more or less consciously doing the same about their return. Each of the returnees is bringing back his own story; they are the stories of confused vagabonds scattered around Europe where they were torn between the attempt to adapt to the new environment and patching up the bits and pieces of Bosnian way of life by keeping company with similar people.

The question is how much patience the citizens of Sarajevo will have to listen to these storie, but probably not more than they have in telling their own. The rage and the vocabulary rich in curses that used to start when runaways were even mentioned are nowadays replaced almost by indifference and cynism of a dog withdrawing into loneliness to lick his wounds. That this is so can be proved by the fact that just a few days ago such political personalities like Jerko Doko or Jadranko Prlic safely paraded the streets downtown Sarajevo, and only six months ago they would have ended up lynched in the head of one of the rare trees which escaped winter felling. That the crusade against the returnees will be led mostly by the ambitious but incompetent who have used the war to promote themselves, is pretty certain though.

The return of those who had left and how they will be received will primarily depend on what the near future, awkwardly shaped by the authorities here and the instruments of international policy, will have to offer as conditions necessary to make the present vegetating worthy of living. The problem is in the difference of conception of what life should be like, but as much in the elements of anarchy which seems to be inevitable in the near future. In this sense, it is not absurd anymore to imagine a situation where Emir Kusturica meets, say, Ademir Kenovic in one of the streets of Sarajevo and asks him "And when did you come back?"

Karim Zaimovi