Post by kapetan on Aug 7, 2008 16:40:15 GMT -5
I don’t know why Republika Srpska should exist
Author: Teofil Pancic, interviewed by Start (Sarajevo)
Uploaded: Thursday, 07 August, 2008
Regular columnist for the Belgrade weekly Vreme argues that the time has come to go beyond Dayton
Start: How do people in Serbia feel about Bosnia-Herzegovina? Do they think about it as much as people in RS, at least, think about Serbia?
Panèiæ: Bosnia-Herzegovina, including RS, is of no interest whatsoever to people in Serbia. With the exception, of course, of those who come from Bosnia-Herzegovina. To everyone else, it is a faraway subject. During the war and immediately after the end of it, some people thought about it, but now Bosnia is outside the focus. People have suppressed the ugly aspects of the war, but put nothing in their place. Most people in Serbia, in my view, have very little concrete idea about what Bosnia-Herzegovina, including RS, is really like. They have no direct contact with either Sarajevo or Banja Luka. That former nationalistic charge, along the lines of ‘let’s help our brothers’, is quite gone, except perhaps in the case of the Radicals.
You have written in one of your columns [in Vreme]: ‘The RS statelet is the expression and personification of all that is ugly and shameful in contemporary Serb history, and I am by far the happiest when I have nothing to do with it. Can RS have a future, given the nature of its formation?
It is a product of ethnic cleansing, created for only Serbs to live in it, by the expulsion of all who were not Serbs, and that is how it functioned in its first phase. Today, however, it is not as ethnically pure as it used to be, nor so separated from the rest of Bosnia-Herzegovina. This is why I ask myself: Why does RS exist at all? If it is not to be based on strict ethnic separation, then there is no point in it whatsoever, politically, economically or geographically. When you look at it on the map, it looks like a joke.
Since it does exist, it is logical to ask what its purpose is right now.
It is simply a way of maintaining the status quo. It is a kind of political conformism practised by both domestic and international politicians. No one knows what purpose it serves, but no one dares change anything fundamentally here, fearing it may cause turbulence. The division of Bosnia-Herzegovina on an ethnic principle is not much liked within the international community, but they tolerate it. They are not capable of making something coherent and lasting out of it. Nor are they able to turn Bosnia-Herzegovina itself into a viable state. No state operating under these conditions could be viable. Imagine that you divided the United States into black and white entities. Would it be a normal state? Of course it would not. Bosnia-Herzegovina right now is in a state of limbo, but something will eventually have to be done to change it.
This is the question which everyone asks: how will it end?
I only know what I would like to see it happen, which is that Bosnia-Herzegovina be revived in a way that would make it possible for every citizen to retain their ethnic and religious identity, but also have the right to be a citizen of Bosnia-Herzegovina. This is the only rational solution. It makes far greater sense than its break-up. The price of such an outcome would be too high. Serbia would then wish to take one part and Croatia another. We know how this experiment ended in the early 1990s. There is no reason why it would be different the second time round. The Dayton agreement was good in that it ended the war, but that does not mean that it provided a basis of existence for all future generations. It is an agreement of limited duration, and the time has come to go beyond it.
RS is increasingly seen as Dodik’s property.
When he went into opposition to the SDS, many people saw him as a liberal politician. But when his own power and domination come to be questioned, then he is ready to resort to nationalistic populism and to flirt with separatism. This is a recipe that always causes catastrophes in the Balkans. My position for the past twenty years has been that all those who behave like ethnic gurus, who incite one lot of people against another lot, are potential or active mass murderers who should not be followed but arrested. At the same time, I think that Dodik’s room for manoeuvre has been narrowed. Also, I don’t think that he would get support in Belgrade for secession, so long as there is a minimally democratic government in Serbia that is reasonably pro-European.
Author: Teofil Pancic, interviewed by Start (Sarajevo)
Uploaded: Thursday, 07 August, 2008
Regular columnist for the Belgrade weekly Vreme argues that the time has come to go beyond Dayton
Start: How do people in Serbia feel about Bosnia-Herzegovina? Do they think about it as much as people in RS, at least, think about Serbia?
Panèiæ: Bosnia-Herzegovina, including RS, is of no interest whatsoever to people in Serbia. With the exception, of course, of those who come from Bosnia-Herzegovina. To everyone else, it is a faraway subject. During the war and immediately after the end of it, some people thought about it, but now Bosnia is outside the focus. People have suppressed the ugly aspects of the war, but put nothing in their place. Most people in Serbia, in my view, have very little concrete idea about what Bosnia-Herzegovina, including RS, is really like. They have no direct contact with either Sarajevo or Banja Luka. That former nationalistic charge, along the lines of ‘let’s help our brothers’, is quite gone, except perhaps in the case of the Radicals.
You have written in one of your columns [in Vreme]: ‘The RS statelet is the expression and personification of all that is ugly and shameful in contemporary Serb history, and I am by far the happiest when I have nothing to do with it. Can RS have a future, given the nature of its formation?
It is a product of ethnic cleansing, created for only Serbs to live in it, by the expulsion of all who were not Serbs, and that is how it functioned in its first phase. Today, however, it is not as ethnically pure as it used to be, nor so separated from the rest of Bosnia-Herzegovina. This is why I ask myself: Why does RS exist at all? If it is not to be based on strict ethnic separation, then there is no point in it whatsoever, politically, economically or geographically. When you look at it on the map, it looks like a joke.
Since it does exist, it is logical to ask what its purpose is right now.
It is simply a way of maintaining the status quo. It is a kind of political conformism practised by both domestic and international politicians. No one knows what purpose it serves, but no one dares change anything fundamentally here, fearing it may cause turbulence. The division of Bosnia-Herzegovina on an ethnic principle is not much liked within the international community, but they tolerate it. They are not capable of making something coherent and lasting out of it. Nor are they able to turn Bosnia-Herzegovina itself into a viable state. No state operating under these conditions could be viable. Imagine that you divided the United States into black and white entities. Would it be a normal state? Of course it would not. Bosnia-Herzegovina right now is in a state of limbo, but something will eventually have to be done to change it.
This is the question which everyone asks: how will it end?
I only know what I would like to see it happen, which is that Bosnia-Herzegovina be revived in a way that would make it possible for every citizen to retain their ethnic and religious identity, but also have the right to be a citizen of Bosnia-Herzegovina. This is the only rational solution. It makes far greater sense than its break-up. The price of such an outcome would be too high. Serbia would then wish to take one part and Croatia another. We know how this experiment ended in the early 1990s. There is no reason why it would be different the second time round. The Dayton agreement was good in that it ended the war, but that does not mean that it provided a basis of existence for all future generations. It is an agreement of limited duration, and the time has come to go beyond it.
RS is increasingly seen as Dodik’s property.
When he went into opposition to the SDS, many people saw him as a liberal politician. But when his own power and domination come to be questioned, then he is ready to resort to nationalistic populism and to flirt with separatism. This is a recipe that always causes catastrophes in the Balkans. My position for the past twenty years has been that all those who behave like ethnic gurus, who incite one lot of people against another lot, are potential or active mass murderers who should not be followed but arrested. At the same time, I think that Dodik’s room for manoeuvre has been narrowed. Also, I don’t think that he would get support in Belgrade for secession, so long as there is a minimally democratic government in Serbia that is reasonably pro-European.