(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The 27. In April, a policeman was shot and killed in a terrorist attack in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Two other officials were injured. The perpetrator, 24 year old Nerdin Ibric, died in a subsequent exchange of gunfire with police. He was a Bosnjak – a Muslim Bosnian. His three victims were all Serbian Bosnians. The scene of the incident was the small town of Zvornik, located on the border with Serbia in Bosnia's Serb-controlled unit, Republika Srpska. Subsequent reactions from the Serbian and Muslim teams provide a good picture of the dividing lines that still characterize the federal state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Fragmented media landscape. Most leading media in Bosnia have a clear ethnic profile. Bosnia Serbs and Bosnjaks were thus served quite contradictory coverage of the Zvornik tragedy in their respective news agencies. Media in the Serbs' self-governing unit, Republika Srpska, were not late in emphasizing that the perpetrator must have shouted "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire. He thus constituted the great horror of all Bosnian Serbs mujahideen (holy warrior) in their midst. Eventually, the attacker's family and friends were also quoted as saying of Islamist motivation. Media reports clearly gave the impression that the attack was a result of Islamist extremists spreading their toxic ideology among Bosnia's Muslims. The message to the people of Republika Srpska was clear: The country's Orthodox Christians – Serbs – are at risk of returning foreign warriors and fanatical terrorists. This is echoing rhetoric dating back to the 1990s, when horror stories of foreign Muslim fighters fighting on the Bosnian army's side frequently appeared in Serbian war propaganda.
The largest newspaper in Bosnia-Herzegovina is Dnevni Avaz, which was founded during the war as the organ and voice of nationalist Bosnian. In its coverage of the attack, the newspaper was not late in reminding readers that Zvornik had been the site of a Serbian-Bosnian massacre in 1992. It was immediately implied that the attacker, Nerdin Ibric, had acted on a revenge motive. Already on April 27, the newspaper reported that the father of Ibric had been killed by Serbian forces in the massacre. It was also alleged that the father of the policeman he killed had been one of the perpetrators at the time. The following day, the Serb-Bosnian newspaper Republika Srpska Press returned with information that the dead policeman, Dragan Duric, had also lost his father during the war – he had been killed when Bosnian forces cleaned the village of Zeljova for Serbs in 1992. These are just two newspaper reports that illustrates how brief the Bosnian reconciliation process has come.
High political game. Republika Srpska represents almost 50 per cent of Bosnia's territory. Nearly one-third of the country's population lives in the unit, which has a significant influx of both Bosnian and Bosnian Croats, besides a Bosnian-Serbian majority. The unit is run by President Milorad Dodik, a Serbian nationalist. Ever since he came to power in 2009, he has been aiming to detach Republika Srpska from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He enjoys very good connections to the country's Serbian-oriented media, which has led to criticism by international agencies for lack of press freedom in Republika Srpska. The horror picture painted after the Zvornik attack on a Serbian people under attack reinforces Dodik's position. The president was not late in turning political coin on the tragedy, saying, among other things, that Bosnia's security services had failed the country's Orthodox population. He made demands to create his own Bosnian-Serbian surveillance service and armed security forces – obvious steps toward full detachment. He also held a meeting with the political leadership of neighboring Serbia, calling for increased cooperation in the field of terror prevention and security. The fact that President Dodik was warmly welcomed in Belgrade received major publicity in Bosnian-Serbian media: a welcome assurance that Orthodox Christians are not alone in the fight against the fanatical Muslim hordes.
An attack on the whole country. Bosnjak newspaper Dnevni Avaz also gave Dodik a significant look in the week after the attack, but with a somewhat less heroic mark. On May 4, the newspaper ran a front page message that Dodik – the leader of a depleted part of a poor country – must have spent € 200 on his son's wedding. The case was illustrated with a picture of a very festive Dodik swinging in the dance. Otherwise, the tone of the newspaper was more conciliatory. All statements by Bosnian leaders, led by the Muslim member of Bosnia's three-part presidency Bakir Izetbegovic, in the days following the attack expressed the same message: What happened in Zvornik was a terrible tragedy, an attack on all of Bosnia and all the country's people groups. In later postings it was also emphasized that this was an exceptional case. The perpetrator acted on his own behalf. The action could not be seen as a Muslim attack on the Serbs. A foreign expert compared the security situation in Bosnia with Denmark – even Copenhagen had recently been hit by a terrorist attack. The message one could read between the lines was that the attack was nothing more than a tragic murder – no further meaning should be added to what had happened. A report in Bosnjak newspaper Dnevni Avaz from May 000 paints a startlingly idyllic picture of relations between Serbs and Muslims in Zvornik. A Muslim woman "grins loudly" when asked if she thinks the attack will lead to tense conditions in the city. The message is clear: Everyone is safe and well-settled in Zvornik. There is no need to grant Republika Srpska special rights to fight any terrorist threat.
Stagnation with nationalist sign. Reactions to the Zvornik attack clearly show that relations between Muslim and Serbian politicians in Bosnia are characterized by distrust. An important reason for the lack of progress is that the country's political landscape is largely locked in the same position as the Dayton peace agreement in 1995. That is, the main political parties in the country remain defined by nationalism and driven by narrow self-interests. The largest party for Bosnia's Muslims is the Stranka Democratic Akcije (SDA). It was founded by Bosnjak nationalist Alija Izetbegovic. He was the Bosnian leader during the war and is a highly divisive figure among the Bosnia people groups. Many blame the outbreak of the war on Alija Izetbegovic's decision to declare Bosnia as an independent nation in 1992 against Bosnian-Serbian and Bosnian-Croatian desires. When he passed away in 2003, he was under investigation by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Bakir Izetbegovic, the leader of the SDA party today and one of the country's most powerful Muslim leaders, is Alijah's son. The party is still holding a steadfast nationalist course.
Milorad Dodik, in turn, was in opposition to the Bosnian Serb nationalist leadership during the war. Equally, his position of power also depends on the legacy of the war. Republika Srpska consists of lands the Bosnian-Serbian army held when the conflict ended, and to which they were granted a degree of self-government as part of the Dayton Agreement. To retain power, Dodik does what he can to emerge as a protector of the Serbs' rights as an vulnerable minority in Bosnia – and to succeed, he relies on an external enemy. The SDA-dominated Sarajevo government is usually in the game. While Dodik is agitating for full liberation, Sarajevo responds with threats of increased centralization and curtailed self-government. Both sides are playing for the gallery through their respective media partners, winning votes to steal against the old enemy. This is a dance that has been going on for years. As long as Bosnia's political landscape remains divided along ethnic divides, it is difficult to see how to achieve progress in the reconciliation process.
More of the same. In April, several leading parties held their annual congresses. They offered more of the same. Dodik's "Alliance of Independent Social Democrats" – which seems neither particularly independent nor social democrat – announced with bravery that the detachment for Republika Srpska remains the goal. Muslim leaders responded that there was something every Bosnian had to oppose "by all means available." The leading Bosnian-Croatian party, for its part, decided that they also want an independent entity, detached from what they see as Muslim-dominated Bosnia. A few days later, the shooting episode in Zvornik breathed further life into the coals that Bosnia's leaders have done little frighteningly to extinguish. 20 years of nationalist steepness may cost all the nation's people dearly if the attack proves to be a sign of the times, and not an isolated case.
On the edge of the cliff. So what does it mean that young Muslim Nerdin Ibric killed Serbian-Bosnian policeman Dragan Duric in 2015? That the lack of reconciliation after the days of war can lead to escalating acts of violence? That Islamic radicalism is spreading among Bosnia's Muslims? That Ibric was a disturbed young man who committed a murder for more diffuse, personal reasons? Perhaps it was all due to a mix of all these elements. What can be said with certainty, however, is that his destiny has already been taken over, adapted and edited to fit into the narratives Bosnia's competing power elites have decided to apply to the country and its people. The question for Bosnia – and the rest of Europe – will be how long they can continue to set the agenda in the country before it ends in disaster.
Dayton agreement
The peace agreement, which officially ended the Bosnia war in 1995, negotiated in Dayton, Ohio, USA.
The agreement was signed in Paris in December 1995 by Yugoslavia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, USA, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany, France and the EU.
The agreement stipulated that Bosnia should exist as a state with Sarajevo as its capital, but also be divided into two autonomous entities: Serbian Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The two-tiered governance set up in 1995 has been largely blamed for the country's failure to develop in the necessary direction and for the integration of ethnic divides to remain absent.
Jensen is a freelance journalist.
jmjensen76@gmail.com.
