Enemy of My Enemy is NOT My Friend

Explaining previously published article about Bosnia, the war in Bosnia, and where are we now

I recently published an article about Serbian Lobbyists going at it again, trying to achieve what they cannot achieve. Now I need to give some background information for those of you unfamiliar with the region. I’m not going to bore you with too many details and dates and such, I’ll just tell it in a way that’s easy to read and understand.

Bosnia is an odd country in Europe, has been odd since forever. Rumour has it that during the Roman Empire, people who were escaping the Cesar found refuge in ‘Bosnia’ — we call it Bosnia now, but even back then this was a little secluded corner with a river up north, a river to the east, and high rise mountains and cliffs south-west. Inside this triangle of two rivers and cliffs there is a land of hills and mountains, covered in thick words, with lots of clean water — so survival in the hills and mountains of Bosnia is very likely because there is lots of drinking water, vegetation, fish, animals, and if you’re hiding, woods are a good place to hide especially on a raised ground so you can see if someone (or an army) is approaching. However, you had to avoid wild animals like wolves and bears.

Cesar didn’t waste his time chasing little, insignificant criminals or intellectuals. Cesar chased the big criminals and intellectuals he considered a threat. To this day, many people in Bosnia are considered a threat either because they are such big criminals or such huge intellectuals. This view is very important because Bosnia is a small country inside a big continent that happens to fear it. This fear is not rational, but that doesn’t make much of a difference. Because, when it comes down to it, the idea of deleting Bosnia off the map, appeals to many. Luckily, there are normal people in Europe and the USA, so there is a chance.

Bosnia has three neighbouring countries. To the east, just over river Drina, we have Serbia and Montenegro, and then we have Croatia wrapped around Bosnia from all the remaining sides. This did not happen by accident. In fact, it also didn’t happen as a result of an armed conflict. Croatia managed to get here through political efforts and connections.

I will fast forward to the end of World War II and the establishment of Yugoslavia. Even though most of the battles fought during WWII were fought in Bosnia, when Yugoslavia was established, Bosnia did not have much respect in this new country. In fact, many would have preferred to use Yugoslavia to remove Bosnia off the map. I remember when we first came to the UK, people in the UK had a really low opinion about us. We were asked if we know what a fridge is. When I showed them that I play the piano and the flute, they were shocked. I had no idea why until I heard how the representatives of Yugoslavia spoke about people from Bosnia. We were portrayed as a backward, ignorant and dangerous lot. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not perfect, but we are NOT how they described us.

This propaganda laid the foundations for the 1992–95 war. And it wasn’t the only piece of the puzzle. After WWII, the people of Bosnia couldn’t be Bosnians, they had to identify as Serbs, Croat or undecided. Later on, during the 1970s, there was the option of being a Muslim. This did not help at all though it might look like help. It might seem like people had ‘more options’. This new option caused even greater divisions, and it further removed the identity of Bosnia. Also, the language in Bosnia became known as ‘Serbo-Croatian’. Another assault on Bosnian identity.

With all these foundations in place, the general assumption was that Bosnia will be ethnically cleansed and divided between Serbia and Croatia in no time at all. In fact, I have a book called ‘Stenogrami o Podjeli Bosne’ — Stenographic Record about Dividing Bosnia. But our enemies underestimated us. Don’t do that.

So the war of 1990s begins. Former republics of Yugoslavia want independence. We in Bosnia know that we have very little chance. However, there was no other way. Serbia likes to claim that it wanted to preserve Yugoslavia, but that’s only for the international community. In Bosnia, they did not hide the fact that they want Greater Serbia. We knew this meant that Muslims have to die. Serbia did not show any will to give Muslims a chance for life in other parts, Sandzak for example — Sandzak was once part of Bosnia, it was ethnically cleansed and it no longer exists.

Slovenia left Yugoslavia with almost no casualties. Croatia had a war with Serbia, but it managed to save itself enough to cause problems in Bosnia when Serbia attacked Bosnia. The war in Bosnia started in April 1992. The people of Bosnia were NOT prepared. Despite all the threats, we did not think a war in Bosnia is possible. We were a very close community.

Murders, mayhem, reports of the most inhumane actions taking place in our beloved Bosnia flooded in from all sides. I live in the centre of the country, and the first areas affected were east, north-east and north, so we didn’t see any of the bloodshed first hand — thank God! However, one night, while we were sitting in the park in front of our building, we were shot at. We all escaped into the basement. That’s where our shelter was. The next morning, military police came to our building and asked who was not in the shelter. We thought we all were. Turns out, the people living in the apartment above our apartment fired at people and other buildings all night. We had no idea when they escaped.

We left Bosnia in May 1992 and found refuge in Croatia in one of the holiday resorts, next to a resort where soldiers resided. I remember meeting and talking to those soldiers. You know the: Enemy of my enemy is my friend? Yeah, don’t trust that. We thought Croatia was our friend. In fact, some men in Bosnia joined the Croatian army thinking that it’s the same thing because we have the same enemy. No!

Croatia turned against Bosnia. In some areas, they were worse than Serbs. In fact, in my town, a couple of grenades were fired onto the central square killing 17 civilians, and it was the Croats. At this time, I was in the UK explaining how everything that people in the UK know about Bosnia is wrong. As fate would have it, new lies were coming in almost daily. I remember two of the lies:

1. Pictures of my home town with people hanging on trees in the centre of the town, right there where the bombs exploded. We were told that those were Serbs killed by Muslims. The shock was indescribable. Our thoughts immediately went to all our friends and neighbours who were Serbs. We were trying to figure out how, who… Who did it? Who was killed? After two days of this torture, we managed to get a family member on the phone (back then we didn’t have mobile phones, and calling someone over satellite was not easy). They literally said “What trees in the square? There are no trees there.” This was true. There never were any trees in the square. The photos were fake.

2. A footage shot in Zvornik. The footage showed one set of people taking another set of people to a concentration camp. The narrator said that that’s Muslims taking Serbs to a concentration camp. Having learned our lesson, we decided to check first. Plus, by that time, Zvornik was ethnically cleansed; a town with 50/50 Serb and Muslim population became 100% Serbian. If Serbs were killed, how are they still alive, and where are the Muslims who were there? This argument, though rational, did not help. We had to find the people on the footage. And we did. The footage was real, but it was Serbian forces taking Muslims to a concentration camp, not the other way around.

Anyway, I spent my teenage years battling lies. In fact, I spent my twenties and thirties battling lies, but it gets easier even though there were increasingly more lies to deal with. Now we face a whole new set of lies, this time about the Dayton Peace Agreement — I’ll have to do a separate article about this. The point I’d like to make now is that DPA has stopped the military conflict. This is an opportunity to prevent another military, armed conflict, yet Serbs are persisting to create a war, a war they cant win. They are struggling to accept that they’ve lost in Bosnia. In fact, they honestly never had a chance because they lost in Croatia. They have to get some territory, from Croatia if they are to have any chance at having some territory from Bosnia. As long as Croatia is wrapped around Bosnia the way it is, Serbs have no chance in Bosnia. Not in the least. All the area west of river Drina will be Croatia if Serbs carry on and Bosnia fails to protect itself.

What we really need to do now is work on making Bosnia a democratic country, fair and with equal rights for all the citizens. This means changing the Dayton Peace Agreement and introducing the ‘one citizens, one vote’ system, or undoing the mess Yugoslavi made when it didn’t let the people of Bosnia be Bosnian. This system is also what the International community has recommended. However, we are still dealing with the fear I mentioned at the beginning. Many do not want to admit this fear, though they really should so that we can work on it and move on.

In the end, I’d like to thank Art Nunymiss for her comments on the previous article which has inspired me to write this article, and many more to come.