Will Election Process Fuel Hate or Heal Wounds?
SARAJEVO, May 8 (Reuters) — Campaign rhetoric from ethnically-based political parties contesting Bosnia's forthcoming elections could divide the country rather than heal the rifts of war, diplomats warned on Wednesday. "Bosnians define themselves in terms of their ethnic and religious and cultural identity because of the war. That's the basis on which most of them fought and suffered and died," said a Western diplomat who asked not to be named. "That's the reality the three major parties (Muslim, Serb and Croat) will be playing to. Izetbegovic's speech over the weekend showed how inflammatory rather ordinary political rhetoric can seem in Bosnia."
Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic travelled to the Muslim enclave of Gorazde on Saturday and delivered a speech which played well among local residents but was criticized by Serbs and some international commentators. Gorazde was the only one of three Muslim pockets in eastern Bosnia to survive Serb siege tactics during 43 months of war.
Except for the Gorazde district, eastern Bosnia today is virtually pure Serb territory as part of the Serb republic controlling 49 per cent of the country. The rest is governed by the Muslim-Croat federation. "Gorazde is a message that we will not only survive... but that we will return to every place they (the Serbs) expelled us from," Izetbegovic told his audience. "The fight for Bosnia Hercegovina will never stop until the whole of Bosnia Hercegovina is free...That fight, with God's help, is continuing."
The President, who began the war without an army and fought on despite an international arms embargo, promised that "not a single one of our men will be left without a rifle."
Given competition among Bosnian Muslim politicians for the votes of hundreds of thousands of refugees driven from their homes by Serbs and still unable to return, the themes in Izetbegovic's speech were unexceptional, even obligatory. But some observers found the tone bellicose where it might have been reconciliatory in the light of the hard-won peace. "That is certainly not the sort of rhetoric we want to see at this stage of (the) Dayton (peace agreement)," Lieutenant-General Sir Michael Walker, commander of NATO ground forces in Bosnia, said of Izetbegovic's speech. Both Bosnian government and Bosnia Serb media quoted the sternest lines from the speech, each for opposite effect.
Izetbegovic, who heads the ruling Muslim nationalist Party of Democratic Action (SDA), is facing a challenge from former Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic, who has formed his own party. Since the refugee vote is critical to both men, campaign rhetoric about the reintegration of Bosnia and the return of Muslims to their homes is likely to become more heated in the months between now and the September election.
That puts the SDA on a collision course with its Bosnian Serb counterpart, the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), whose hardline leaders include indicted war criminals who fought the Bosnian war to create ethnically pure Serb territory. Bosnia's nationalist Croat party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), is equally ethnic in its appeal, pitting the three main parties in a contest which observers expect will find the electorate voting almost exclusively along ethnic lines.
Possibly adding fuel to the fire are international efforts to break the Serb and federation governments' virtual monopol on radio and television by creating an alternative "network" from small, independent stations. With financial and technical assistance those stations could increase their range and broadcast across the "inter-ethnic boundary line" which now separates Bosnia's Serb republic from its Muslim-Croat federation. That could open up the airwaves to political messages from moderate, non-ethnically-based parties and their candidates.
Apr 20 · $50 Million Needed for Bosnia Elections
Apr 19 · Silajdzic Launches Attack on Croatia
Apr 17 · Bosnian Media Network Unlikely by Election Time
Apr 16 · Renegade Muslim Leader in Bosnian Elections
Apr 15 · Serbs Said Undermining Bosnian Elections
Apr 14 · Silajdzic Announces New Political Party
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