IFOR AND THE SAINTS

St. January of the Republic of Srpska

"The new Orthodox order" the cause of family dramas in Banjaluka. The father of three sons, a combatant, was completely taken by surprise when his eleven-year old son, returning from Sunday school asked him reproachfully: "Father, are we illegitimate"?

AIM, Banjaluka, January 14, 1996

People in Banjaluka are merry-making and carousing on account of orthodoxy. Even today this involves shooting and salvoes in the night, emptying charges into the air, mahine-gun fire and other forms of Serbian traditional revelry. That is how St. January - as they call it - looks like. The Banjaluka restaurants were fully booked for the celebration of the Serbian New Year on January 13. It was the same on New Year's eve on December 31, which the whole world observes, although that could also be explained as a popular revolt. Those who decided that they still loved Santa Claus were punished: they had to work on January 1 and

1. In all fairness, those were the few working days of this month, with the Republic of Srpska in this way showing its citizens what it thinks of "invented" holidays foisted on the Serbian people.

Later on, these two days were also compensated by a prolonged vacation.

Buying Serbian Leather

In the name of God, and the Republic of Srpska is a devout state to the extent that the feast of every conceivable orthodox Saint is at the same time both a state holiday and a non-working day, nobody worked on January 6, 7 and 8, in other words neither on Christams Eve nor Christmas itself. Then came January 9, St.Stephen's Day, which is at the same time the National Day of the republic of Srpska. Next came the Serbian New Year, a full three days of holidays, counting New Year's eve. The Epiphany on January 19, St.John's Day on January 20 and St.Sava's Day on January 27 were also non-working days. And those who celebrate the Feast of St.Peter's Chains will not work on January 29. With all the Saturdays and Sundays (which luckily coincide with some of the Saints) this will altogether amount to some fifteen days of holidays. And so on up to St.February...

Fundamentalism after the Serbian fashion, this distressful erasure of the multinational past of Banjaluka is becoming a caricature. It is impossible to get a cup of Turkish coffee in a restaurant. Now it is called the Krajina coffee. They say that in the village of Budimlic Japra near Sanski Most above the village shop hangs a sign: Private Serbian Trading Shop "Stanimir". A leather purchasing firm in Banjaluka stretched out on the wall a piece of leather painted as a Serbian tricolour to advertise its business. Redemption of the Serbian hide, jokesters remarked so that a few days ago the flag was painted grey. People in Leskovac got the bright idea to offer the Republic of Srpska towels painted as the Serbian tricolour, but with a coat of arms. For wiping hands, feet and whatever...

Still, the people agree to meet "at the turbeh" or near the Ferhadija mosque, or better said on the empty space in the city center, where it used to stand.

"The new Orthodox order" also causes family traumas in Banjaluka. The father of three sons, a combatant, was completely taken by surprise when his eleven-year old son, returning from Sunday school, asked him reproachfully: "Father, are we really illegitimate"?

Another problem families have to cope with is learning the English language. Since Latin alphabet has become the script of the enemy, a non-Serbian script (no longer used in schools), learning the English language is so demanding on the children as would be the mastering of basic Chinese. Intellectuals have dedicated this school vacation to clandestinely teaching their children the Latin script, to save what little there is to save.

Still, a loaf of bread costing 2.5 dinars is the priority of all households. Skilful management of coupons is just as vital. The chronic shortage of dinars and payment of all income in these "papers" reduced the nominal value of couponsby half. Articles in shops have four prices: in German marks, dinars, coupons and when paid through giro accounts. Well versed housewives claim that, contrary to expectations, the best combination for survival is to buy coupons for German marks. You can get three times more coupons then dinars for a DM and thus buy 10 percent more goods in shops. Coupons are purchased to pay dues to the state, which turn out to be half cheaper that way.

After wiping out everything that was not Serbian, Banjaluka is ethnically plain - plain hungry. Today it has 50,000 inhabitants more than compared to 1991, i.e. 250,000 people, out of which 87,470 are refugees left behind after the "Flash" and "Storm" operations, and 40,000 pensioners: all social cases.

Therefore St.January is like a thorn in the side of its inhabitants. A bottle of wine which can be bought for 8 dinars in Serbia, costs between 25 and 45 dinars here. A kilo of washing powder is 72 rather than 14 dinars. And once the best stocked department store in Bosnia "Boska" with an area of 16,000 sq.m. stands empty in the center of the city.

• "The Director needs DM 5 million to fill it," complains the mayor Predrag Radic, also member of the SDS Main Board. - "There is no production, only 10 percent of the capacities is used, everything is much worse since the introduction of the Serbian embargo. Only the food industry works a little. Once a giant, "Cajavec" now employs 500 people, while it used to have 7,500 workers. And everything is three times more expensive than in Serbia. My salary is only DM 120".

Might Makes Right

Adding special "flavour" to life in Banjaluka is the silent presence of IFOR. Everything started with much tension, misunderstandings. According to mayor Radic they started looking around on thei own for factories and facilities in which to accommodate themselves. We learned unofficially that they were given a list of adequate factories in advance by the authorities, that the directors were unaware of their powers and sought to present a false picture of the situation and deny them entry. If we add that some of the installations were used for military production, their embarrassment because of the "break-in" was inevitable. Still there are signs that the civilian authorities resent them more than the military ones. As we heard the latter were in favour of more a cordial welcome so that IFOR would hopefully rebuild and invest more.

There were other, less serious, incidents. They lost a football match against the villagers of Krupa, three to nil. Their chopper broke down in Prnjavor so that the pilots, fearing the villagers, spent the whole night locked in a room while the people called them to come out and have some brandy and a bite. Finally, IFOR's men and the soldiers of the Republic of Srpska met at Manjaca, each side convinced that the other was the one full of prejudices.

• "They probably expected us to be the savages and that we would pounce upon them and mug them", says Milan R. just arrived from the front. - "Then we offered them brandy. A very young one with glasses sitting next to me showed me photographs of his children".

-" They stare at us as if we came from outer space,"- says "the other side", the thirty-year old Talk liaison officer of General Mike Jackson, the commander of Sector South-West. -" Still, when we sit in cafe "Ritz", young people approach us and offer us drinks. It is clear that everyone is fed up with the war. People stop me in the street asking whether I have seen their relatives lost in other parts of Bosnia. A guy who fled Knin was looking for his girl who was left behind."

Naturally, he has heard that there are 23 grils to a boy in Banjaluka, but his "girl" at home in Birmingham has just celebrated her first birthday.

The citizens of Banjaluka, if the present refugee-village mix can be called that, still do not love boys who stick to the suburbs, avoid contacts and go strictly by the book. Elderly people, the devil knows why, swear at English soldiers cursing "their" Clinton.. And they do it in passing, just to say something. It seems that people here are used to acknowledge only the law of force, and the armoured car is quite convincing and "eases" the patriotic conscience.

Anyway, "Might makes right" was the message Aleksa Buha, Minister of the Republic of Srpska, addressed to the population from the round table of TV Pale, after Dayton. The confused viewers could also hear from Nikola Koljevic, the Vice-President, "that we are in a situation in which no one can dominate us". From Momcilo Krajisnik, the President of the Parliament, the true ruler of the Republic of Srpska, they heard that "we can only admire what we have achieved", or that "much more can be achieved in peace than in war". And the following promising words: "In peace we shall separate the chaff from the wheat in our midst".

The message of Leighton Smith was more bitter. If IFOR ever comes across the President of the Republic of Srpska, he will be arrested. Now most of the people think that Radovan Karadzic is in some sort of a cage at Pale. He cannot go to Banjaluka, only the Zvornik-Pale road is open to him, while the one leading from Pale to Rogatica is questionable. Mico Carevic, the Banjaluka leader of the SK-Movement for Yugoslavia believes that despite the popular indignation at the exodus he could calmly walk through the city. Not because the people like him, but because he doesn't mean anything to anyone, says he.

And it seems that the people find it strange to be without a leader. A professional driver from Drvar, the city the Serbs lost for ever, is forced to stop every three-hundred meters while driving to Belgrade by night along a rutted road. Having long since become used to the "checks" by policemen-racketeers, he sheepishly takes out the extortion money and pays them. At the fourth "check-point" he says to the policeman with resignation: "The farther we go, the more expensive you get. If only... I would kiss Tito now where no one has kissed him before..."

(AIM) Gordana Igric