In Sarajevo, A Troubling Indifference
By Boro Kontic*
April 14, 1999
SARAJEVO, Bosnia -- Late last month, this city was preparing to formally
reopen the sports center originally built to host the 1984 Winter Olympic
Games. Bosnian Serbs had burned the center to the ground in May 1992, during
the siege of Sarajevo. The reopening ceremonies were expected to attract
prominent members of the International Olympic Committee as well as the
figure-skating medalists from the 1984 Olympiad.
Unfortunately, this long-awaited festival, seen as a symbol of the
city's rebirth, had to be postponed: The airport was closed due to the
NATO air strikes in nearby Yugoslavia.
Although air service is due to be restored this week, the current
air strikes continue to affected Bosnia in dozens of ways. Practically
anything that happens in Yugoslavia or Croatia influences events here.
But it's far too cynical to compare the situation here with conditions
in Kosovo, where thousands of Albanian refugees are streaming towards toward
Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro, or to what's happening Serbia, where
ordinary people live under constant threat of bombardment.
The international community had labeled 1999 "the year of return"
in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Hundreds of thousands of those displaced by
the war in Bosnia were finally supposed to return home. Instead, the past
several months have seen an influx of almost 20,000 new refugees into Bosnia
from Kosovo and Sandjak, another predominately Muslin section of Yugoslavia.
In spite of all this, even though residents of Sarajevo can watch hours
of news from Serbia and Kosovo, the prevalent attitude is indifference.
In part, that's because most here think that the NATO strikes have come
seven or eight years too late -- that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
should have endured such strikes before the war in Bosnia began in April
1992.
There has been some increased attention with the reports of the persecution
of Kosovo Albanians, and especially with reports of the murders of university
professors, journalists, and intellectuals from Pristina. Nevertheless,
Sevima Sali-Terzic, a prominent Sarajevo lawyer, felt compelled to publish
an open letter to the Bosnian public, saying she was ashamed of Sarajevo's
reaction to the war.
"Sarajevo sleeps, relaxed in its backwater, as if there has been
no war, as if Srebrenica never happened, as if no Sarajevo child has been
a victim of Milosevic's killers, as if people here have not been sniper
targets while queuing in bread and water lines," she wrote.
In many ways, Sarajevo's reaction today is similar to its mood seven
years ago on the eve of the war. There seems to be a feeling that what's
happening in Kosovo and Yugoslavia is something far away that cannot affect
us. The daily statements of government officials here, who repeatedly say
that a new war is unlikely and that the international forces already in
the country are ready to defend the peace, reinforces these reactions.
Earlier this month, U.S. ambassador to Bosnia Richard Kauzlarich reiterated
U.S. policy that the Kosovo tragedy will not be allowed to spread.
Alija Izetbegovic, the leader of Bosia,s Muslims, has also repeated
his conviction that the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina is secure. He
argues that a weak Serbia, further debilitated by NATO air strikes, will
not be able to interfere in Bosnian affairs and that a democratic Croatia
will not wish to. In the long run, he expects Bosnian Serbs to become more
independent of Serbia and inclined to cooperate with other ethnic groups
within Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Others, however, worry the opposite will happen. George Kenney, a U.S.
diplomatic analyst, recently stated that the introduction of NATO ground
troops in Kosovo is inevitable, and that such a deployment might lead Bosnian
Serbs to "go wild," worsening the situation here. General Atif
Dudakovic, the vice chief-of-staff of Bosnia's military, has said he considers
a new war in Bosnia a probability.
Of course, all this is mere speculation. Sarajevo may eventually feel
triumphant that NATO bombs have finally fallen on Milosevic. But one thing
does seem certain: the fate of Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia are inextricably
linked. It's hard to imagine that recent events in Kosovo will have no
effect on Bosnia.
* Boro Kontic is editor-in-chief of the Soros Media Center in Sarajevo.
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© 1999 Global Beat Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. The Global
Beat Syndicate, a service of New York University's Center for War, Peace,
and the News Media, provides editors with commentary and perspective articles
on critical global issues from contributors around the world. For more
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