By: Alex of Belgrade
May 8, 2006
1. Republic of Srpska's sovereignity, guaranteed by the Dayton Peace Agreement, is being reduced on a daily basis, little by little. Licence plates and currency have already become the same for the entire Bosnia-Hercegovina. The so-called Bosnian state bodies which function on the whole of Bosnia-Hercegovina, are given more and more power. Soon, the international community plans to create a "unified" army for the whole of Bosnia-Hercegovina (after so much bloodshed, is that even possible?). Some international circles are already demanding the revision of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which guarantees the existence of the RS.
2. Serbian people who have been living in Bosnia for centuries, have created the Republic of Srpska in 1992 for three main reasons: •
it was a direct answer to Bosnia's unilateral independence from Yugoslavia, and to Alija Izetbegovic's islamic state, •
it was created because Serbs there remember what they have been through in WW 2 only too well, and they did not want that genocide to be repeated, •
thus, the RS was created solely for the protection and survival of the Serbian people in Bosnia.
3. While it's no secret that the Bosnian Muslims would like the entire Bosnia-Hercegovina to themselves only, for it to be an islamic state in the heart of Europe, it's also no secret that two other peoples who live in Bosnia - Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats, oppose the creation of an islamic state. They each want either a strong entity for themselves within Bosnia, or a referendum on independence and union with Serbia proper / Croatia proper. It's no secret that a great majority of the Serbian people in Bosnia do not want a unitarian Bosnian state, yet alone an islamic one.
4. Bosnian Muslims, who also refer to themselves as Bosniaques, claim that the RS is a "genocidal creation", that Serbs are "agressors", and that, as such, the RS should be eliminated. The Serbian people of Bosnia, however, stress that they have been living in Bosnia for centuries and therefore cannot be agressors in their own land. The RS was created simply as a reaction to islamic separatism, and it was the only way to protect the Serbian people in Bosnia. If the RS had not been created, not a single Serb would be left alive in Bosnia today. We see that in places that are no longer under Serbian control, such as in Mostar, Tuzla, Sarajevo... Very few Serbs live there now, as opposed to the situation before the war. Bosnian Muslims, who accuse Serbia proper as being an "agressor", fail to mention the regular army troops of the Republic of Croatia, which were active in Bosnia. They also fail to mention the mujahedins from Arab countries, who have strong ties with the Al Qaeda network, many of whom have received Bosnian citizenships, passports etc.
5. Bosnia is pursuing a court case at the Hage against Serbia, claiming genocide. Bosnian Serb remarks are fully ignored even though they are the constituent people of Bosnia, as are the Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Muslims. Bosnia is not just a state of the Muslims, yet the court case is such that Muslims (in the name of the entire Bosnia) are accusing Serbs (in neighboring Serbia) of wanting to eliminate them.
While horrible crimes have occured in the Bosnian civil, ethnic and religious war, on all sides, and while all that is a huge tragedy, claiming that Serbia proper wanted to DESTROY, ERRADICATE and ELIMINATE Muslims in Bosnia is proposterous. Serbia has many of its Muslims who live in Sandzak and Serbia did not move a finger to destroy them. Why would it go across the border to destroy Muslims there, if it had not done so within its own borders?
It is known that Milosevic had encouraged the Bosnian Serbs to sign all peace agreements that have come and gone - the Cyrus-Vance plan, the Vance-Owen plan, the Lord Carrington proposal etc. It is also known that Milosevic, at one point, broke off relations with the Bosnian Serbs, and that he received a truly presidential welcome with the red carpet and flashing sign at Dayton, where the Bosnian war finally ended. There is no proof that he had given any order to cleanse Bosnia, especially Srebrenica. In any case, Slobodan Milosevic is dead now and cannot be sentenced for anything. Unfortunately, Franjo Tudjman and Alija Izetbegovic have also died without facing a court sentence.
6. The international community often uses double standards for identical situations. For example, the situation now is as follows. The RS is an entity in Bosnia, that has its territory, used to have its National Bank and currency, its own licence plates - now it does not have them any more. But, still, it has its own government, parliament, president, national symbols, police, army, etc - all the elements of a state. In Serbia, Kosovo is a Province that has some elements of a state, but much less than the RS has in Bosnia. Kosovo has its government, president, parliament, symbols (identical to those of Albania proper), police. It has no army and uses the euro as its currency. So, both the RS and Kosovo are entities in their own countries (RS in Bosnia, Kosovo in Serbia), that have some elements of a state.
While, in the RS, 95% of the people are Bosnian Serbs, in Kosovo 95% of the people are Kosovo Albanians.
Both Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo are de facto protectorates of the international community, which has tens of thousands troops in each of these places. The head of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia, and the UNMIK chief in Kosovo, individually have more power than any of the bodies of Bosnia/Kosovo. They can annull any decision and make valid any other decision, regardless of the decisions of such bodies as parliament, government etc.
So, while Bosnia is pushed into being a centralized, unitarian Bosnian state, at the same time, Serbia is demanded to become decentralized.
While Kosovo (in Serbia) will be given the right to hold a referendum on independence, the RS (in Bosnia) is denied such a right. Why? The situation in the two entities is very similar, if not identical, and yet one set of rules applies in one case, and a different set of rules in the other case.
If the same principles were to apply - neither RS nor Kosovo should be given a right to hold a vote on independence, OR both of them should be given that right. What we have now are double standards - one entity will be given the right which another will not. Is there any logic there? No.
7. While the world media has become used to fingerpointing at Serbs in general for Srebrenica, which is most regrettable, the same media ignore the crimes of Muslims against Serbs - in that same Srebrenica prior to 1995, in Sarajevo, in Tuzla (the massacre of 300 Yugoslav Army conscripts as they were clearly withdrawing), they fail to mention the beheading of Serbs by Arab mujahedins, roasting Serbs on fire, they fail to mention Muslim prison camps such as Tarcin, Silos, Viktor Bubanj barracks, Zenica Youth Correction Facility, Zenica Music School and other places where many Serbs were tortured and killed... If we all want truth and reconsiliation, we must not just mention the "genocide in Srebrenica by Serbs" and "the siege of Sarajevo".
We must look at ALL the crimes committed by ALL the sides. Why are tears of a Muslim mother more important than tears of a Serbian or a Croatian mother? Tears have no religion, there are no "good tears" and "bad tears", there are no "Orthodox tears" and "Islamic tears". For the sake of the truth, and total reconciliation and forgiveness, all the war crimes must be investigated and their perpatrators must be brought to justice, whoever they are, and of whatever nationality and whatever religion they may be. Putting all the blame on Serbs, for everything that has happened in the former Yugoslavia (and Bosnia), is proposterous, because when one learns about the history of the Balkans, about who has done what during both world wars, when one realises that 3 peoples live in Bosnia and 3 religions, then it's clear that putting the blame just on "the Serbs", will not work. Many forget that before the beginning of the war in Bosnia in 1992, Alija Izetbegovic, an islamic hardliner, said: "I will sacrifice peace for a sovereign Bosnia". In fact, the first victims of the Bosnian war were members of a Serbian family at an Orthodox wedding procession.
8. There has been too much bloodshed and hate across the former Yugoslavia and Bosnia. Pushing the peoples of Bosnia to live together again, as if nothing had happened, BY FORCING THEM to do so, will not bring a lasting peace to the Balkans. Bosnia is a fake state, that survives only because of the many thousands of international troops there. It would never function as a state by itself, and bloodshed would resume the moment the international forces would leave. Therefore, having this in mind, and all that has been presented here, the RS should be allowed to hold a referendum and decide about its own future, just as Kosovo will be allowed the same right. ----------