06/23/2006
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Even the Bosnian body with Serbian majority is thinking about secession
“To make myself clear I’ll give an example: the secession of the Republic of
Srpska from Bosnia and Herzegovina is comparable to Padania’s secession from Italy.
In a word, a farce. The Republic of Srpska does not exist. It is an invention
of the Dayton agreements.”
A long history. Croatian journalist Dario Terzic, who lives and works in Mostar but in the area
with a Muslim majority, leaves no room for doubt. He did the same even when the
two parts of the city were shooting at each other, and instead of shooting at
the citizens, Dario founded Radio Mostar and carried it forward during the war.
A Croatian amongst the besieged Serbs. The Republic of Srpska is a product of
the Balkan war and was created by Serbian war criminals Mladic e Karadzic, who
left many deaths in their wake. The Republic was officially recognised at the
end of the war and Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided into two confederate territorial
entities: the Croatian-Muslim Federation, which occupies 51 percent of the Bosnian
territory, and the Republic of Srpska, which holds 49 percent. Bosnia’s Serbian
minority lives in the latter. The post-war period is depicted by the managerial
difficulties of a three-party power (almost all public offices are filled by one
Croatian, one Serb and one Muslim, all three working together) that makes bureaucracy
elephantine. Refugees do not return home, but past violence is only an unpleasant
memory. The Republic of Srpska went to the polls to elect its own premier and
Milorad Dodik won the elections on February 4th. His first address was reassuring, and he talked about increasing cooperation
with the International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague, which is still in pursuit
of Karadzic and Mladic. About a month ago Dodik spoke with a concerned tone about
the Republic of Srpska’s right to secede, which will be decided by a people’s
referendum.
A long history. Croatian journalist Dario Terzic, who lives and works in Mostar but in the area
with a Muslim majority, leaves no room for doubt. He did the same even when the
two parts of the city were shooting at each other, and instead of shooting at
the citizens, Dario founded Radio Mostar and carried it forward during the war.
A Croatian amongst the besieged Serbs. The Republic of Srpska is a product of
the Balkan war and was created by Serbian war criminals Mladic e Karadzic, who
left many deaths in their wake. The Republic was officially recognised at the
end of the war and Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided into two confederate territorial
entities: the Croatian-Muslim Federation, which occupies 51 percent of the Bosnian
territory, and the Republic of Srpska, which holds 49 percent. Bosnia’s Serbian
minority lives in the latter. The post-war period is depicted by the managerial
difficulties of a three-party power (almost all public offices are filled by one
Croatian, one Serb and one Muslim, all three working together) that makes bureaucracy
elephantine. Refugees do not return home, but past violence is only an unpleasant
memory. The Republic of Srpska went to the polls to elect its own premier and
Milorad Dodik won the elections on February 4th. His first address was reassuring, and he talked about increasing cooperation
with the International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague, which is still in pursuit
of Karadzic and Mladic. About a month ago Dodik spoke with a concerned tone about
the Republic of Srpska’s right to secede, which will be decided by a people’s
referendum. A controversial premier. “Dodik is an unreliable figure,” said Terzic. “He continuously changes his position
on the issues, and is never resolute in his statements. Now this story of the
referendum will cause something of a stir, but 15 years have now gone by since
the end of the war. Everyone gets up every morning in Bosnia and says what he
thinks.” That may be the way it is, but at the end of May a Bosnian non-governmental
organisation called the Popular Serbian Movement announced it had collected 50,000
signatures for the referendum on secession. The episode is linked to the statements
Dodik gave to the press right after the outcome of the referendum that marked
Montenegro’s separation from Serbia at the end of May, when he talked about the
Republic of Srpska’s independence for the first time. So something is astir. “The
premise is entirely different,” Terzic explained. “The referendum for separating
Montenegro and Serbia has always been envisioned, ever since the 1973 Yugoslavian
constitution. They were confederate states and could separate from each other
with a referendum. The Republic of Srpska can not. It is a product of the war
and was ratified by the 1995 Dayton agreements. We can decide that we don’t like
the Bosnia that was born of the peace treaties, but this is another matter. Within
a short time nobody will remember Dodik’s statements, even if I don’t deny that
one part of the population of the Republic of Srpska would be in favour of seceding
from Bosnia. In short, however much history teaches us that one can never say
never in Bosnia Herzegovina, I don’t think that the Serbian part of Bosnia can
truly break off from the country.”
Christian Elia
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