BEAUTIFUL AND (ETHNICALLY) CLEANSED MY SARAJEVO

Tearing Down Dayton

AIM Sarajevo, 11 December, 1997

Spectators of Bosnia & Herzegovina Television have been watching for months and several times a day the almost inflantile and uninventive advertising message which says: "Clean and beautiful my Sarajevo". This video spot is financed by the international community and serves to teach the imbecile Sarajevans to throw garbage and trash into cans and containers. Isn't that something? Well, whether Sarajevo is a beautiful city or not, it is certainly a matter of taste and individual aesthetic criteria, but clean, despite all warnings, it is not. New parts of the city in which its new citizens live, who were just until recently villagers, are surrounded by piles of garbage. It is not much better even downtown. But, Sarajevo is being cleansed. It is more and more ethnically cleansed every day. Data speak for themselves: in 1991, in its ten municipalities, Sarajevo had 600 thousand inhabitants, 50 per cent of whom were Bosniacs (still called Muslims at the time), 28.7 per cent were the Serbs, 14.5 per cent "others", and 6.8 per cent were the Croats. The demographic picture in this, 1997, is as follows: 87.8 per cent are the Bosniacs, 5.3 per cent are the Croats, 5.06 per cent are the Serbs and 1.18 per cent are the others. Since the number of true Jews who have remained in this city can be counted on the fingers of two hands, it literally means that there is one Serb or Croat per every ten Bosniacs.

This is the picture of the city which prided itself and bragged with epithets of tolerance, multiethnicity, multiculturality, multireligiousness and who knows what else. On account of that, sympathy, moral support, material aid were arriving from the world. Sarajevo was cited as a symbol and example of the possibility of joint life. And now it turns out that with its ethnic cleansiness in percentages Sarajevo resembles Banja Luka the most. The only difference is in the nations, because while the Bosniacs fled and were banished from Banja Luka, this city was abandoned by the Serbs and the Croats.

In order to be truthful it should be said that the political authorities in Sarajevo have never stated any stand on ethnic cleansiness of this city. There has never been any evictions from this city either. On the contrary, readiness and good will for coexistence were regularly expressed in front of international officials and power-wielders. How sincere this was is a different issue. But, which are the reasons why out of the nearly 200 thousand Serbs nowadays in this city there are only about 18 thousand. A certain number of them surely left Sarajevo of their own free will because of their political ideals and commitments, there are others who left for fear of revanchism and of being sent away, and yet others who left because of everyday human humiliating position. The authorities did not exactly do anything to prevent neither of them. To the greatest exodus of the Serbs from Sarajevo municipalties during their annexation to the federation last year, the authorities reacted unconvincingly, insincerely and half-heartedly. The message - remain here, nothing will happen to you - was actually addressed to the world. But in fact it was all staged, so that within just a few days, new, Bosniac tenants moved into their homes. Harassment of the few who have remained has become a custom, and recently (whether as an echo of the Latic-Vesovic polemic) their origin is increasingly mentioned, and they themselves identified with Chetniks.

The Croats did not fare much better either. Many of them have lost their work and their apartments, and numerous terrorist acts in front of Catholic religious and even educational buildings conveyed the intimidating message: go away, it is the chuch and school buildings now, and it will be your turn next. The recent orgies which lasted the whole night after the B&H basketball team won the match with the national team of Croatia which was described by local media as the most beautiful spontaneous joy, must have made blood of the remaining Croats run cold. The main slogans shouted in the streets were: "Slaughter, slaughter the Ustashe", and "Tonight is our night, tonight Tudjman is on on the rack, let him be on the rack, f... him when he has no luck". Except for courtesy half-hearted reproach from the political leadership, there were no other reactions. In such an atmosphere stories about further departure of the Croats are more realistic and founded than those about their return.

Under pressure exerted by the Office of the High Representative of the international community for civilian implementation of the Dayton peace accords, the federal assembly recently passed a law on abandoned property. In brief, its entering into force makes the old law on abandoned housing units null and void and tenants are given the right to return to their homes. If the wish to have a state ruled by law is sincere, it is only logical. But, those better informed about circumstances in Sarajevo already rightfully doubt that this law will ever be implemented. Despite all complaints against the judiciary there are hundreds of legally binding court decisions on return of property. Such documents, however, remain just a dead letter. New Sarajevans, and it is claimed that there are about 130 thousand of them, simply do not want to go back to their Zepa, Rogatica or Foca. They feel quite well in the usurped houses and at their usurped jobs. People have got accustomed to their new lives and it would not be fair for the authorities to disturb them.

In Sarajevo canton there are nowadays about 18 thousand Serbs and about the same number of the Croats. Superficial optimists would say that it is not such a small number and that with the process of return, former way of life could be re-established here. But, that will not be. The Croats and the Serbs who have remained are as a rule matured, or more precisely elderly people. Mostly in fact, the old, ailing, lonely, weak. The few still remaining young people are living here with the only ambition to leave. As far as possible from the Balkans. In elementary or secondary schools there are very few Croat children and almost no Serbs. There are very few children, the age structure of the population is crushing, and it is an established fact that time flies and that the biological clock is ticking for everyone. In such gloomy process there is going to be less and less multiethnicity. And although the comparison may sound too harsh, like dinosaurs, the Croats and the Serbs are slowly becoming extinct here. The television slogan: "Beautiful and (ethnically) cleansed my Sarajevo" is gradually acquiring its true and full sense.

Has it been from the very beginning of the war part of the "cunning strategy" of the Party of Democratic Action, decide for yourself. But before doing it, take the following comparison into consideration. In Tuzla, where the Union of B&H Social Democrats is in power, the demographic picture is quite the same as before the war. There is even one per cent more of the Croats than there used to be, there were 16 and now there are 17 per cent of them. And, as mayor Selim Beslagic said for AIM, the doors of Tuzla are open day and night to all the well-meaning returnees.

Mladen PAUNOVIC

(AIM, Sarajevo)