PARTS OF SARAJEVO AFTER REINTEGRATION INTO FEDERATION OF

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA

Monstrous Games with People

AIM Sarajevo, May 23, 1996

At least the artistic people must be aware of the name of Olivera Varagic. Until the beginning of the war in Bosnia & Herzegovina she was the artistic director of all significant and complex projects of Television Sarajevo, which this house got numerous and deserved praises for. When the war started, she remained in her apartment on the occupied part of Grbavica, and she spent it, along with all her own misery, taking care and protecting many Muslim families. When Grbavica was liberated and annexed to the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina, she went back to her old post in Television Sarajevo. A notice of dismissal awaited her there dated back sometime in 1993, she was warned about very restricted movements in her former firm...

A couple of doctors, Josip and Biljana Vincetic, have also spent the war in Grbavica, they worked in the out-patient clinic there, as the remaining citizens of Grbavica claim, they did their jobs on an exceptionally high professional and ethical level. Now, after transition of the authorities, they were both dismissed, although the situation in Sarajevo with health workers had never been worse...

Brankica Sljivo, a nurse in the Medical Centre of Ilijas was at first transferred from her post to be a cleaning woman, and then even such humiliation was not enough for the power wielders, and without any explanations, she was told that she should not come to work any more...

One could go on enumerating such, similar or even much more drastic examples from the reintegrated regions of Sarajevo. It would be useless to remind local politicians of many promises given to people just before these regions were taken over from the Republic of Srpska - that all property and other rights would be guaranteed to them, as well as freedom of movement and full political equality. Only fools rejoice at false promises, as the people say, which especially refers to promises given by politicians. Because, noone even tries to conceal any more that everything that was happening in Grbavica, Ilidza, Vogosca, Ilijas and Hadzici, was done with at a signal and with a blessing of the local high political officials. That is why there were so many cases of forcible moving into apartments, robberies and thefts, prepared groups of people for raiding into other people's houses and apartments.

Sad returnees

In the past few days in the streets of Sarajevo, it was a pleasure to see again many known faces from the world of arts, sciences or business. "The old Sarajevo folks are coming back" - many well-meaning citizens spoke with enthusiasm. They are returning with the intention to stay for good, they have brought their families with them, ending their lives in places where they felt as strangers. That is, at least, what was their intention and wish. They believed they would be their own masters here, at home at last. But, there is no use of joy and the welcome wished by their fellow-citizens, when these same returneees met with walls of silence, open contempt and political insinuations by the competent authorities. If they dared ask for their apartments, they often received the following answer: "Ask Karadzic and Mladic to give them to you"; if they asked for their jobs, all they got was a notice of dismissal, usually they could not even get hold of their employment records. Such examples are sometimes absurd and grotesque. For instance, a woman returns and asks to get her business premises back. "You Chetnik", a new party power-wielder tells her, "how did you dare come to this city. Do you know what kind of statements against this country your husband made". No, the woman actually does not know, since she got divorced from that husband fifteen years ago, she is living with her children in Slovenia, and he is somewhere in Serbia, the business premises are her property. Nevertheless, quite certainly, she will not be able to get hold of her property. And what can these people do but take what little they can of their belongings and leave Sarajevo for ever, after days spent in going through the mill humiliated, embittered and heartsick. The only experience they have acquired is - if it is possible to live on air and water, to sleep on the ground covered by the skies, then you are "Welcome to Sarajevo".

Refined Ethnic Cleansing

In the eyes of the international institutions, Sarajevo and the authorities in it have made the greatest political points for their multiethnicity, multiculture and multidenominationality. They not only differed drastically in that sense from the Republic of Srpska and "Herzeg Bosna" which carried out their job of ethnic cleansing thoroughly and in blood, but they were also indicated as an example that joint life was possible and as a vision of recreation of a civic state. Enormous political support, military and financial assistance was received due to that very fact. But, as time went by, everything that distinguished this city gradually disappeared, all those multi-multi attributes were gradually. The remaining Croats in the city, persistently and with absolutely no effect complain about their inferiority, and the Serbs have completely retreated and simply cannot be heard. All in any way important jobs are reserved for Bosniac Muslims, the criterion of capability to do them being incomparably less important than party membership. This is the reality, everything else is an illusion, despite the still apparent and persisting advocating of multiethnic Bosnian position by the politicians in power, and sincere advocating of it by the opposition which has no influence on decision-making. In such an atmosphere which is far from any, especially from a civic legal state, where force represses laws, which is dominated by personal and property insecurity, which people, despite the peace, are still obsessed by hopelessness and wish to leave. Noone is actually chasing citizens away from the city, except for longterm hopelessness and blunt grasp of the situation. Noone will try to keep them in the city either, after all, there are so many refugees who are waiting to move into somebody's apartment, and take possession of everything made by someone else with great pains for decades. This is how a more subtle and refined process of ethnic cleansing is gaining speed in Sarajevo.

Inefficient Protection of Human Rights

Almost no public statement of a politician passes without his mentioning of return of refugees and displaced persons to their homes as the most essential precondirtion of reintegration of Bosnia & Herzegovina. According to a well-established pattern, places like Stolac, Capljina, Jajce, Bugojno, Vares and some smaller ones are mentioned in the context. Sarajevo is not mentioned by anyone, least of all its 100 thousand inhabitants of all nationalities who have left this city since 1992. Is that just accidentally so, or their return is not desirable, especially as it is known that nowadays the composition of the population is essentially different from what it used to be before the war, and that the city is gradually but increasingly ethnically homegenized? It is possible that that is, in fact, the real and true objective of the current authorities.

Instances which have occurred since several suburbs of Sarajevo have been reintegrated into the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina speak in favour of this. It is true that an enormous number of the Serbs who have fled from this region have been tricked by Karadzic's propaganda to leave and, by vandalistically setting everything they had left behind on fire, left a terrible blemish, but even those who have lived honourably and remained in this space are not prospering. Simply, they are undesirable both here and there, they can have no confidence in institutions of the system, the police, the judiciary, they are left at the mercy of municipal and other power wielders. For their protection, they cannot count on either the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights or ombudsme, because the executive power is somewhere else. And without that, apart from understanding and good will, these institutions can do hardly anything. The following example illustrates this best. After a series of severe violations of housing rights, when ombudsmen appealed to the Second Corps of the Army of B&H, they received the following answer: "The Army of B&H is an already well-established institution where housing problems of its members are resolved pursuant current legal regulations. Meddling of anybody with the system means disturbing the system of management and command in the Army, which we as an institution can allow noone outside the system of the Army to do."

By its arrogance and disregard of human rights, it would be difficult to find a more flagrant example than this one. And as long as things continue the way they have done so far, noone should be surprised with what has been happening in either Sarajevo or elsewhere.

MLADEN PAUNOVIC