REACTIONS TO TALKS BETWEEN TOKIC AND DODIK

AIM, Sarajevo, June 14, 1995

For a long time, no event in Sarajevo has been experienced as such a political sensation and hit topic of tempestuous polemics as the case of the recent meeting of Tokic and Dodik convened in Perugia. The very information that the oppositionists from the Bosnia-Herzegovina parliament and the oppositionists from the so-called "Republic of Srpska" sat at a table together and talked started bitter reactions in the public dividing it on the principle of "pro et contra" the meeting. For days, leaders of both the ruling and the opposition parties commented and evaluated the meeting, contact radio programs were broadcast with the topic "Are you in favour of meetings like the one in Perugia?", messages of support and condemnation followed each other in a row, and titles in local media varied from the ones such as "They exceeded all limits", or "A storm in a teacup", to those of a completely different type such as "Tokic is a peace-maker", depending, of course, on the source of information.

But, it is a fact that reactions to the meeting in Perugia revealed political options of almost all parliamentary parties in B&H, but vehement criticism of the meeting by some leaders of the opposition induced their own membership to question further support to them. Reactions of the ruling Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) was no suprise in any way - as expected, they insisted that noone else should dare even speak, least of all decide about the future of Bosnia&Herzegovina instead of them. Putting an equation mark between these two parties and the state, that is, between their leaderships and national interests, once more resulted in demagogical statements such as "if we don't like it, the nation is not in favour of it either".

Assessing probably that developments which do not directly interfere in the imaginary space of "Herzeg-Bosnia" should not fluster them too much, the leadership of the HDZ limited its condemnation to the level of concern for the position of exclusive "guardians" of the future of Bosnia&Herzegovina: "We do not accept anything that is not in line with our policy agreed on by leaders of B&H Federation, that is, the ruling HDZ and SDA. We will continue to pursue this policy, and we consider everything else to be political manipulation and fishing in troubled waters", Sarajevo Board of the HDZ claims in its statement. Their coalition partner in power, the Party of Democratic Action, after an unsuccessful attempt to minimize the meeting with statements such as "these talks are completely irrelevant", or "Mr Tokic and those who think like he does, are no force in our country", or even "why give it such publicity, it is just a storm in a teacup", reached out for accusations about collaboration with the aggressor and even threats about possible consequences for Tokic.

According to what the spokesman of the SDA, Ismet Grba, had to say, "the critical attitude of Sejfudin Tokic towards the ruling national oligarchies means equating the authorities in Pale with other, legitimate authorities in B&H", meaning that this act was reprehensible. Grbo corroborates this thesis by claiming that Mr Tokic, when he said that "thousands of people were killed in B&H" should have also said that this was a genocide, and that what is going on in B&H is not a war, but an aggression against B&H. As he failed to mention this, his guilt is obvious, as Grbo laconically concludes! Besides the accusation for what he has not said - for what Grbo even promised that a serious discussion will be initiated in the parliament and that Tokic will have to answer for his act - the spokesman of the SDA does not fail to mention that "our people received with abomination certain capricious arbitrary contacts of political parties in B&H with war criminals". It is not clear again in what way (by telepathy perhaps?) the SDA was informed what "our people" think, except if the people are not thinking again what the the Party orders. But, Grbo's observation about contacts of the opposition with "war criminals" - that is, with Milorad Dodik whose deputy's mandate, by the way, the Assembly of the Republic of B&H has never abolished, because The Ministry of Internal Affairs of B&H had no indications about any responsibility of his for any such act, so that his mandate was even transferred to the parliament of the Federation - provoked journalists' questions concerning former negotiations about B&H and their protagonists. Failing, of course, to say who on the Bosnian side has in fact talked with real war criminals, Karadzic and his associates, during the entire war in various destinations of the whole world, the spokesman of the SDA ended his statement with the words that Tokic should answer for his deeds to the parliament.

Contrary to the SDA, Chairman of that very parliament, Miro Lazovic, not only supports the meeting of oppositionists of the two parties, but even criticizes those who condemn this meeting: "I am opposed to an a priori criticism of such contacts, especially because these people disassociate themselves of the disastrous policy of the Serb Democratic party (SDS) which can produce nothing but futrther continuation of the war, destruction and misery of the Serb people", Lazovic claims and adds that he was "also against accusations about guilt of entire nations, and in that sense I agree with Dodik, because the guilt for the war and crimes perpetrated by the leaders from Pale must not be attributed to the entire Serb nation". It seems, though, that the Chairman of the Bosnian parliament, Miro Lazovic, recognizes intolerance of national policy of the ruling party in its sharp condemnation of contacts with the opposition of the so-called "Republic of Srpska", since in his statement for the AIM he claims that "the Bosnia&Herzegovina party must be ready to seek democratic forces on the other side, to establish contacts with them, because it is quite clear that without the Serbs there is no such thing as a unique B&H! That is why I consider the meeting between Tokic and Dodik to be the beginning of a necessary communication which leads to interruption of the war and destruction of the aspirations towards 'Greater Serbia' coming from Pale which wishes to accomplish its objective to the detriment of interests of other nations".

Apart from the Chairman of the parliament, open support to the talks in Perugia is also expressed by the Serb Civic Council (SGV), whose secretary general, Rajko Zivkovic, claims that the SGV "supports the initiative which is stepping towards establishment of contacts and agreements with democratically oriented Serbs who live on the territory controlled by Karadzic's regime", by the President of the Liberals, Rasim Kadic, but by non-party associations, too, such as the Sarajevo independent intellectuals from the "Circle 99", the Tuzla "Forum of Citizens". The dwarf party of the Liberal Boshniak Organization (LBO), better known as a sattelite of the SDA, through mediation of its leader Muhamed Filipovic, reacted similarly to its patrons from the ruling party: "This just illustrates insignificance of the opposition", Vice-President of the LBO, Salih Foco, claims.

The greatest surprise was the statement of the leader of former communists, Nijaz Durakovic, which resulted in disassociation of a part of the leadership of this party (SDP) from its first man. Namely, from his tour around Europe, from Vienna, Durakovic and allegedly his travelling companions, members of the Presidency of the SDP, Bogic Bogicevic and Ivan Brigic, addressed the following statement to the media in Sarajevo:

"For who knows how many times, the SDP was informed about the strange activity of the Union of B&H Social Democrats, to be specific, Sejfudin Tokic... At the latest meeting in Italy he met with his old acquaintances and reformist friends who this time represented the phantom 'Republic of Srpska'. The SDP of B&H has never had the opportunity to hear that Tokic has disassociated himself from these Karadzic's servants and this exceeds the limits not just of political but any other tolerance".

After Durakovic's statements which was later used by the ruling SDA as the crucial evidence of Tokic's guilt, problems emerged among the Sarajevo leadership of this party (except for the already mentioned opposite statement of M. Lazovic, who is also a member of the SDP), and Bogicevic and Brigic disassociated themselves from it claiming that they had not participated in writing of the statement, and that Durakovic had neither consulted them nor even informed them about it. The media in Sarajevo, afterwards, published comments about this with a remark "the SDP from Vienna, and the SDP from Sarajevo".

Finally, it is obvious that none of the reactions to the meeting in Perugia included any analysis of issued agreed on and signed there, and that they are all just expressions of servitude to the regime, inter-party intolerance, and even personal vanity. In the response of the UBSD to all similar statements, its President and the Mayor of Tuzla, Selim Beslagic, said: "They were inadequate forms of persecution of our party. A true dialogiue and polemics would have been led had any party offered arguments that it was harmful for our homeland to seek Karadzic's opponents and find allies among the Serbs on the temporarily occupied territories, or had anyone recognized an act in favour of continuation of the war with no visible end in these contacts. No. They all agree that it is necessary to make an effort to end the war, and to prevent our children from being killed. That is exactly what our party is doing, but many seem to be afraid of our influence and support the people are increasingly offering us. That is, in fact, the real reason for all this hue and cry."

DRAZENA PERANIC