STOP THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT OR

HOW THE REGIME DECIDED TO GET EVEN WITH THE FAME OF THE OPPOSITION

AIM, SARAJEVO, April 7, 1995 Does he exist, what does he do and who in the world is Mr Philip Workings? For the insulted power-wielders from the Tuzla-Podrinje Canton, he is a hero from far away who has come to dry their tears and comfort them in their fears that the European Parliament likes their political opponents better than them. Moreover, the mentioned Mr Workings for that purpose disassociated himself from those parliamentarians who offer greater support to the civic political concept of B&H, that is to the opposition. For legitimate members of the European Parliament, however, Mr Workings is a "non-existent person", but a "shameful fiction" as well! Since declared stances of B&H authorities and those of members of the European Parliament is explicitly clear, it is hard to believe that the "Workings case" will end on the level of an unintended misunderstanding. It is, unfortunately, more likely that we are on the verge of a downright diplomatic scandal, due to lack of understanding and refusal to accept democracy, that is, another case of inability to resist the enchantment with single-party rule.

It all began with a visit of a delegation of the European Parliament to Tuzla. Ms Doris Pack, Chairwoman of the European Parliament Committee for South-East Europe, Mr Yiannis Roubatis and Mr Jan Kees Wiebeng, both also members of the Parliament, used their short visit to Tuzla to express open support to the local city authorities consisting of a coalition of civic parties, and to the Mayor of Tuzla himself, Selim Beslagic, who is at the same time, President of the opposition UBSD. "We have come for the sake of Tuzla which is for us one of the last multi-cultural cities in Bosnia, and we wish to offer support to the model of life in Tuzla, because we do not wish to see Bosnia divided", Mr Doris Pack said on the occasion. Her colleague from the European Parliament, Yiannis Roubatis, speaking of Tuzla as a democratic municipality despite the war in the country, used the expression "an interesting experiment". Although Dr. Sead Avdic, the head of the Tuzla Government and the city SDP, reacted immediately to the thesis about the "experiment", explaining that "no experiment is going on in Tuzla, because co-existence here lasts for a thousand years already", that is exactly what was used to minimize the significance of this visit for Tuzla.

Thus a correspondent of the state, strictly controlled television from Tuzla, reprimanded angrily in the central news program both the delegation of the European Parliament and the authorities of Tuzla they supported, until the so-called "Protest" of the Tuzla-Podrinje Canton was not made public in the same program, which revealed the true cause of dissatisfaction of the Canton leaders. Namely, the offended Cantonal authorities, recruited from the ranks of the ruling SDA, resented the European parliamentarians for not having visited them too, but devoted their full attention to the Tuzla Municipality, which is in the hands of the civic opposition. The statement of the parliamentarians such as the one that "Mayor of Tuzla, Selim Beslagic, is a special person and has friends around the world, which should be taken into account by all those who believe that Beslagic can easily be replaced", probably was the severest blow for the "higher bodies" which experience the exceptional respectability of Tuzla and Beslagic abroad (obviously with good reason) as their political defeat.

Having experienced the visit of European representatives to Tuzla as a personal handicap and failure, the Cantonal authorities found a wise solution in the apology of the mentioned Philip Workings for the "misdeeds" of the parliamentarians committed during the visit to Tuzla. And again, state television, by an intentional selection of news, played the role of the protector of the ruling party, giving this event an extraordinary significance. In the central news program, while telecasting contributions from the press conference of the Government of Tuzla-Podrinje Canton, it was especially emphasized that the "delegation of the Canton in Sarajevo was visited by Mr Philip Workings (neither his function nor what state he is from was mentioned, remark of the author) who, in the name of the European Parliament, apologized for the excess caused by the delegation of the European Parliament headed by Mr Doris Pack during their recent visit to Tuzla. Inappropriate statements of individuals should not be considered as a gesture of the European Parliament, and we are disassociating ourselves from them, Mr Workings said on the occasion".

Since public disassociation from members of parliament, or interstate apologies for some of their ill-considered actions are not a frequent practice in Western democracies - nor do they result from individual decisions of unofficial interest groups, but there are rather strict rules for any such act, which are after all the bases of democracy - we tried to trace back this information wishing to stablish more precisely the reasons for disassociation of the European Parliament from its members. But, after the very first contact with the officials in the EP, a problem emerged: neither has anyone ever heard for Mr Workings, nor was there any disassociation from the parliamentarians who had visited Tuzla. In a direct contact with Ms Doris Pack, who represented a half of the EP as the Chairwoman of the European Parliament Committee for South-East Europe - and whose first reaction was incredulity and unconcealed agitation - we got the following statement:

• During our short visit to Tuzla which lasted approximately four hours, we planned to meet the Mayor of Tuzla, his deputies and members of the Tuzla City Council. We were not even given the mandate to visit the Canton and that is why it was not arranged. Bosnian media published that Philip Workings acted as an eye-witness of the European Parliamentary delegation. However, there is absolutely no foundation for his statements, since there is no member of Parliament by the name of Philip Workings. This non-existent person is a shameful fiction. We are sorry that our close relations with Tuzla have been damaged by this party conflict. My colleagues and I, who are friends of Bosnia with our whole hearts, are disappointed for being treated like in this way, Ms Doris Pack stated.

After collection of all the facts, this is how matters stand (so far) - Mr Workings is not a member of the EP and cannot arbitrarily apologize or disassociate himself in the name of the Parliament from its actual members, but, according to Bosnia&Herzegovina television, it happened anyway. Therefore, the possible solutions for the riddle are as follows: either Mr Workings is an ardent fan of the leaders of the Tuzla-Podrinje Canton who, seized by emotions, decided to act the role of a European parliamentarian and to say what his idols wished to hear (which is hardly probable!); or RTV B&H - regardless of the fact that its Director guides a party press conference in the morning and in the afternoon watches in her daily news program whether she had said everything right or she had omitted to scold any of the oppositionists - made up the whole story about the apology to the Cantonal authorities, just to make them feel less inferior in relation to Beslagic (which is even less probable!); or the leaders of the Tuzla-Podrinje Canton assumed that everything is permissible if one has the support of the party in power - even manipulation with untruths, because noone dares suspect the Party - and therefore, arbitrarily and arrogantly publicized the alleged apology of the European Parliament and Mr Workings (which is most probable).

Whatever the exact background of the "Workings case" may be, one thing is certain: where ruling is believed to be unlimited power and dependent on the will of a small group of people who are, in order to remain in power, "forgiven" all for that purpose chosen means - there is no democracy. Nor can there be a happy state and people.

DRAZENA PERANIC