Europe watches a slowly developing crisis in Bosnia with suspicion that Russia is stirring things up | world news


In the Balkans, Europe is watching a crisis slowly unfold.

A familiar problem, in a familiar place, but now with the added prospect of Russian intervention.

Thirty years after its horrific war, Bosnia is caught in a complex and volatile dispute that encompasses ethnic divisions, religious rivalry, genocide denial, heartbreaking memories and the nurturing suspicion that Moscow is stirring things up.

The past invades you in Bosnia. It is a country shaped by centuries of ethnic and religious divisions, and still struggling to come to terms with its own fractured identity.

But it is modern history that is so tangible – the various scars left by three and a half years of brutal war in the 1990s. There were 100,000 dead in a country of just four million people.

Some of these scars are surprisingly obvious. We stop at an apartment building in Sarajevo, originally built for the 1984 Winter Olympics, and stare at the large side wall – pockmarked with hundreds of holes. They range from small bullet holes to gaping holes left by rockets and shells.

But these can be fixed. Bosnia’s biggest problems are the lingering trauma, the dangerous tensions that still divide the country, and the sense that it could be back on the path to catastrophic war. That nothing, really, has changed.

To understand how visceral these divisions are, we leave Sarajevo and drive for a few hours. Just before arriving at the border with Serbia, you find the town of Srebrenica. It was here that more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serbs in July 1995. An act of almost indescribable callousness, led by Ratko Mladic. He assured residents they would be safe, then ordered a wave of dizzying violence, which began, shockingly, before the eyes of United Nations troops.

There is a huge cemetery here now. A focal point for remembrance. What strikes you is the number of graves here – and also the groups of family members buried together – fathers and sons, all killed at the same time.

Sehida Abdurahmanovic knows the pain. Her husband Jakube was killed in the early days of the war. Her brother, Meho, was murdered during the massacre and his remains have never been found. Her 16-year-old son survived by escaping into the woods.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” she told me. “I never imagined that the genocide would happen, that there would be a crime of such magnitude. If I had known, I would have run for my life and I would have saved my children from everything that happened I believed in civilization I made a big mistake.

“When I thought of my son, he said he never stopped thinking about us. We were lucky. He said he would have killed himself if we were dead. My brother didn’t was never found and I have never found his remains. I hope to find a bone to bury him in – it would bring me comfort. So that I can pray.

The guilt of survival weighs heavily on many. Sehida’s son, like so many young people, left the country and started a new life abroad – of his class of 44 students, only four survived.

Ratko Mladic is currently in prison, convicted of genocide. You might think his name would be a stain on this country; that he would be reviled by everyone. And you would be wrong.

In the nearby town of Bratunac, we are ushered into a large hall, much like a chapel. Surrounding the walls are hundreds of photographs of Bosnian Serbs killed in the war.

“That’s my cousin Augustus here,” politician Vojin Pavlovic says, as we walk together. “His head was cut off and hit like a soccer ball. It was terrible.”

Pavlovic believes that the death of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica – the worst massacre in Europe since the Holocaust – was not so serious. A crime, yes, but nothing more. That the man who ordered it is simply misunderstood.

“I believe Ratko Mladic is a hero and he is not guilty of what he was charged with and found guilty of,” Pavlovic tells me. There was no genocide in Srebrenica.”

Ratko Mladic
Image:
Ratko Mladic

For him, the legacy of the war is not about reconciliation, but about the creation and expansion of Republika Srpska.

Complaining of being marginalized by Bosniaks, who make up around half of the population, Republika Srpska says it wants to manage its own affairs and even raise its own army.

To many people, this sounds a lot like the kind of rhetoric that led to the war 30 years ago, but Pavlovic is clear in his mind: “There will be no peace in this region until the international community will represent, defend and protect only one side. This side is the side of the Muslims.

Back in the capital, Ljubisa Cosic welcomes us to her office with a smile. The mayor of East Sarajevo has a new office looking into the distance. He likes to take long shots.

“The dissolution of Bosnia and Herzegovina will happen if this state continues like this,” he said. “Bosniaks are still trying to have a centralized state. They want more and more. It’s not possible. We had a war because of that.”

So could this happen again? Could Bosnia really relapse into conflict and division? The answer, troubling, is a cautious “maybe”.

If Republika Srpska ever decided to seek independence, it would need supporters in power. In this case, he already has a feeling of kinship with Serbia, of friendship with Russia.

“Personally, I like Russians more than Americans,” says Cosic. “We have a very, very strong historic relationship with the Russians and we believe in Russia.”

Pavlovic is even less equivocal. “NATO is a criminal organization, which can only be compared to the Third Reich as a fascist organization,” he says with a shrug.

The fear of many in Western Europe is that Russia is looking for new places to foment upheaval – to divert attention from what is happening in Ukraine and to stretch European unity – and that Bosnia, with its divisions and its volatility, may seem like the perfect candidate.

Throughout history, the Balkans have often been the crucible of violence. Few doubts that, if the spark is lit, it could happen again.

malek

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

GreenLeaf Tw2sl