Brussels Protocol Unites the Opposition

AIM Sarajevo, 21 July, 1998

"The opposition is doing everything just in order to come to power". This is the most frequent accusation addressed by the ruling party at its opponents ever since the establishment of the multi-party system in the country. There is the inevitable dose of self-pity in it - because if the opposition is fighting for something so wicked as power, it means that those who have it are nothing but victims of such a difficult trade. And all that for the sake of our common well-being...

But, with the Brussels Protocol, the opposition will finally make it clear to the regime that struggle for power and the attempt to replace it is quite a normal thing which in a democratic environment can never be labelled as the "lack of patriotism". On the contrary, such a struggle is an imperative for the opposition, especially in a country where results of several-year rule of one and the same political party are more than crushing. On the other hand, the unfortunate victim, i.e. the authorities, will reply to the opposition appalled, something like - 'you should be ashamed of yourself'! Especially because the message was sent, among other, by opposition leaders who were during the war inclined to the concept of Izetbegovic's Party of Democratic Action.

But, first things first. Last week, at the main headquarters of NATO in Brussels, leaders of the opposition parties, Zlatko Lagumdzija (SDP), Selim Beslagic (Social Democrats), Stjepan Kljuic (Republicans), Muhamed Filipovic (LBO), Ivo Komsic (HSS), Adil Zulfikarpasic (MBO), Kasim Vejzagic (SPP), and the president of the Serb Civil Council Mirko Pejanovic met with Secretary General of NATO Javier Solana, supreme commander of ally forces Wesley Clark, and ambassadors and heads of missions of member countries of the North Atlantic alliance and Partnership for Peace. The talks between the opposition and the Euro-Atlantic allies, it was reported from Brussels, were very open, and the impression is that support of the West was focused on strengthening of the opposition struggle for taking over power. As confirmation of this thesis, a signed document followed, called the Brssels Protocol, by which the mentioned parties as their basic joint goal promote the change of the existing concept of power in B&H, and pre-election activities aimed against the ruling national parties.

For this purpose, signatories of the Protocol bind themselves not to attack each other, to exchange information and coordinate their pre-election activities, to form a joint secretariat for exchange of information, coordination and expert communication with representatives of the international community during the pre-election process. By publicly declaring themselves against the ruling political structures in B&H, leaders of the North-Atlantic alliance made it clear that they still consider the idea of replacing national oligarchies which was first made public in Westendorp's attempts to unite Social Democrats, to be the optimum solution for establishment of stable peace and democratization of B&H.

Apart from the defined goal characteristic of every opposition and support of the West, the greatest value of the signed document is the fact that after the SDP B&H stepped out of the Associated List '96, it gathered again parties of the former coalition in an institutionalized form of the protocol, and that the comeback of Lagumdzija's Social Democrats is the most powerful reinforcement of the democratic alternative and of its advantage in togetherness.

Of course, the authorities in Sarajevo immediately expressed discontent with the Brussels Protocol, and the fact that Alija Izetbegovic, president of the ruling party, in person, took upon himself to criticize the agreement of the opposition and the Euro-Atlantic institution is the best illustration of the nervousness caused by the successful Brussels meeting inside the Party of Democratic Action. In the attempt to convince himself and the membership of his party "that they do not feel threatened by the Brussels meeting", as the strongest trump card against the opposition, Izetbegovic stated his stand that they "brag about the fact that they went to NATO to get support for their political options" which, according to him, "they should conceal", and "be ashamed" of this support, said Izetbegovic, wondering whether the opposition was actually asking for "air-force support of NATO in order to come to power".

Izetbegovic's sudden belief in his forces and the lament that "our people do not like foreigners who appoint the authorities in B&H", could perhaps be understood as a sincere reflection of the retired lawyer if he had not been a politician who had until recently believed that NATO operations in B&H were indispensable, who signed the peace accords prepared in laboratories of the very same countries of the West, who has survived at the head of the Presidency of united B&H only thanks to the engagement of the West and not his own, and whose slogan in the last elections was the self-satisfied boast: "We are supported both by the East and the West". This time in B&H, the agile West is publicly supporting a different political option, since use of force in this space is linked to the rule of the current regime, not the opposition.

And while the opposition should reconsider and show whether it is capable of taking over power, the SDA could this time choose the following to be its election slogan: "We are supported by the East, and the opposition by the West", and in this way try to make everything the "loathsome" West and NATO are bringing to this country revolting to the people. The case of Pale, however, has already shown how "safe" it is to play this game.

Drazena PERANIC

(AIM, SARAJEVO)