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Na ruim twee jaar en veel verhalen in het Bosnisch uit Nederland, zoals beloofd op mijn afscheidsborrel, ook verhalen in het Nederlands uit Bosnië. Veel plezier. S.
“1. April, A Donkey Towing Paper!”
We further learn that people have played tennis in Prijedor since the wartime year of 1915, and that today’s tourism “has much to offer”. “In Prijedor”, she writes, “they believe that in order to attract a larger number of tourists, experience has shown that it is necessary to work more on the development of high-quality, well-conceived marketing and presentation of touristic potential”. “It is thought”, she continues, “that Prijedor, together with its surrounding region, could develop tourism along environmental lines and in the village spas. Hunting and fishing, recreational sports, and special events could attract visitors as well. Tourism could also be based on the region’s cultural and historical heritage”.
From the mouth of the devil…
At the end of the article, there is a picture of Mayor Pavić with a sour smile and a brief selection of his most important quotes. And Marko Pavić is, true to the spirit of the article, full of optimism and -- ostensibly -- proud that Prijedor, “in the past four years, as one Ambassador noted, has been transformed from a black hole into a setting in which it is worthwhile to invest”.
Here, the interested and uninformed reader with a sharp eye would perhaps ask, “What kind of black hole is involved here? I would have thought that after the great fire of 1882, the city was rebuilt by now? And why would some Ambassador -- that is, a foreigner -- speak this way about some little town on the very northwestern fringe of Bosnia, far from Sarajevo where he otherwise resides?” However, many readers around Bosnia-Herzegovina, entertained by the daily economic problems, and each by his own local politicians, have long since lost interest. People who have been dulled by war and by life in post-Dayton Bosnia hardly wish to be so very well-informed, and certainly not by any close examination. Thus, these and similar journalistic “works” shamelessly continue to fill the pages of magazines and newspapers throughout this Bosnia-Herzegovina that belongs to no one -- or, in fact (how did Moša Pijade[4] put it, in November, 1943?[5]) -- to everyone.
So far, our shameful war history and the poor situation of returnees has mostly been obscured and censored in the media of the smaller -- they call it “Serb” -- entity. But there, right on 1 April, 2009, on the day of (black) humor, from the now apparently former black hole, it is the turn of the legendary Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje. So from the article about this city, the happy and smiling readers in Sarajevo, Banja Luka, and Prijedor itself, as well as nearby Kozarac[6], would not gain an inkling that beyond the borders of the country our Prijedor, aside Sarajevo, Mostar, and Srebrenica, is the most well-known city in this, our one and only Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Because in The Hague, and in Washington, London, Geneva, and Paris, they have known about Prijedor ever since 1992.
Part Two - “Unrenowned” History
They know, that is, that back in 1992 the municipality of Prijedor founded and, for months, carefully concealed, and finally brought to light three concentration camps, of which one, that at Keraterm, existed within the borders of the town itself. Suddenly three stunted, under-nourished triplets were born, the illegitimate offspring of the father Radovan of Durmitor[7] and the Prijedoran mother, whose maiden name was the “crisis staff of the Serb municipality of Prijedor”.[8]
Prijedor is a municipality with 3,254 civilian victims from the recent war, and to date, 63 mass graves have been discovered. The grave in Stari Kevljani, immediately next to the Omarska camp, was found in August, 2004. To that point it had carefully concealed from the light of day the remains of its population of 456, including Bosniaks, Croats, and members of other ethnicities. Many Prijedorans, including Pavić’s wartime colleague mayor Milomir Stakić, today serve their well-earned sentences meted out at The Hague, Sarajevo, and Banja Luka for crimes committed at Korićanske Stijene;[9] in the camps of Omarska, Trnopolje and Keraterm; for the mass murders in Stari Grad (Old Town), in Kozarac, Hambarine, Briševo, Čarakovo; for the systematic, planned, and implemented expulsion and slaughter of the non-Serb inhabitants.
That is how Prijedor has become a “great Bosnian city”. Not as a city of celebrated beauty, as it was humorously represented on 1 April, 2009 by Oslobodjenje to the many and varied Bosnian readers, but as the first Bosnian Srebrenica. And just because of this “unsung” -- only in Prijedor -- history, sadly, people know of Prijedor, all the way from Finland to Brazil. Not because of any tennis in 1915, nor through tourism, and certainly not through any “special events”. That is, unless the above-mentioned touristic hunting includes the hunt for humans that took place in 1992.
Based on the number (over 30) of those accused and tried, besides being a city of artists, Prijedor is, if we follow the logic of Božice Radić , also a city of criminals.
Today there are numerous monuments in this city, such as one in front of the municipal Parliament -- a large black cross -- and the one for the fallen Serb fighters, shamelessly erected in front of the former camp at Trnopolje. They tell the broadly promoted, simple story of one ethnicity that, from Prijedor in 1992, created that black hole that Pavić mentions. Even the names of the streets have been altered. So has the name of the famous Prijedor Gymnasium, once called “Esad Midžić”, after the man who, in the thirties and forties of the previous century, together with Doctor Mladen Stojanović[10], ennobled this city. Today that Gymnasium bears the name “Sveti Sava”, after a man who in his (long-ago Medieval) era never set foot in Bosnia-Herzegovina, let alone Prijedor. These changes clumsily conceal the fact that in Prijedor, up until 1991, 44% of the population was Bosniak (or “muslims” with a small “m”, that is, believers, as the seemingly inarticulate Mrs. Radić calls them).
Those (often) black monuments, and these -- still, today -- black holes, hide this shameful history of the once lovely, multi-ethnic city on the green Sana River, but only from the Prijedorans themselves. They hide the fact that the sons and daughters of Prijedor; the esteemed professors of that Gymnasium; the doctors and specialists of the Prijedor hospital honored with the name of Dr. Mladen Stojanović; the businessmen, inspectors, policemen, laborers, miners, villagers, and the women and children; one by one, during that rainy summer of 1992, were tormented to death in the camps.
They hide the fact that these citizens of Prijedor were led away in groups, and then shot in the back in a cowardly fashion and scattered in pits all around the “once celebrated” Prijedor. And in this way Prijedor killed its students, Prijedor raped its girls, Prijedor expelled its inhabitants, Prijedor robbed and torched its houses, and Prijedor, using machines from the mines at Ljubija, dug itself those sixty-three great, black holes.
But it does not occur to anyone in this year of 2009 to lift the veil, even a little, on that darkness, and for example to support the initiative for the construction of a Memorial Centre at the former camp of Omarska. As Ed Vulliamy (British journalist who, on 5 August, 1992, together with his colleague Penny Marshall, discovered the camps of Prijedor) said, “Omarska camp, was, after Srebrenica, the most fertile killing field of the Bosnian war”.
Part Three - Prijedor - City of Genocide
Thus Prijedor, besides having been renowned long ago, since 1992 is also a city of genocide, carried out professionally and conceived with surgical precision. Not with the precision of the late Doctor Esad Sadiković, that great Prijedoran and Sarajevan, Bosniak, Serb and Croat, a Yugoslav, and above all a Bosnian. That Doctor Esad who, just like Doctors Pašić, Sikora, and Rešić, are no longer there to share a drink of Cockta[11] and to go around Prijedor healing both “your” and “our” children. They were taken out of Omarska and then, though carefully tracked by the alert hawk-eyes of the powerful but quiet American satellites, driven for hours together with 123 other wretched victims from the camps. They were viciously shot, that steamy August night of 1992, and thrown like sacks into yet another black hole of Prijedor, just twelve hours before the arrival of the British journalists and finally the discovery of the three Prijedoran foundlings.
I say “genocide”, because in June of 2004 the Hague Tribunal, in a decision against Slobodan Milošević, characterized the events in the “renowned” Prijedor as genocide. Prijedor, the city in which in 1992, after the pogroms, the ekavica[12] dialect was forcefully introduced (as they say, “leave no stone unturned”). I say “precision”, bearing in mind Esad’s colleague who died in a cell at The Hague, one of those thirty “artists” of the nineties, Dr. Milan Kovačević.[13] According to him, at least as a drunken Milan himself once babbled to some journalists, “this war has been going on since the time of Barbarossa”.
“Yes”, as Roćko from ‘Pozorište u kući’ (“Theater at Home”[14]) said, “but not in my home”.
And perhaps that precision and professionalism was best expressed, in just a couple of words, back in 1996, by yet another former colleague of Pavić and Kovačević from the Prijedoran tentacle of the Bosnian octopus of the “Demo Serbocratic Party”[15]. The late Simo Drljača, member of the municipal crisis staff, indicted by the Hague Tribunal, said, "With their mosques, you must not just break the minarets… You've got to shake up the foundations because that means they cannot build another. Do that, and they'll want to go. They'll just leave by themselves."[16]
This is what has become of Prijedor since 1992, every day, except for 1 April, 2009.
Part Four - Priorities of Prijedor, and the Kozarac Kvrguša
It is too soon, perhaps, for a catharsis. Because it doesn’t occur to Pavić, nor to anyone else in “Predor”, to show all 25,000 of the returnees, and in this way the entire world, through their behavior, that he and the inhabitants of this city reject that shameful past. Just a year ago the municipal Mayor publicly announced that he opposed the construction of a Memorial Center at Omarska.
Village-spa tourism and fishing are the municipal priorities, says the April first story…
But the recent history and its public record -- or lack thereof -- are not the only matter that is passed over in this article, one which fits comfortably into the category of free commercials and obituaries.
Neither Radić nor Pavić mention that for years, the returnee population in Kozarac has been struggling to acquire the necessary housing for the Volunteer Firefighters Association, founded in long-ago 1892. The firehouse was destroyed in 1992, as was practically every other building in Kozarac. This century-old association, having rebuilt itself based on donations and the hard work of the citizens of Kozarac, has yet to be included in the municipal budget.
No one mentions that the citizens of Kozarac and other returnees struggle throughout the summer and winter because of yet-unresolved problems with the water supply. (Meanwhile, there is always water in Prijedor.) Nor that reconstruction of the clinic in Kozarac was finally begun in 2008 (return began in 1998) - but again, without funding from Prijedor municipality.
No one has even shown the slightest bit of interest in the fact that the main street in Kozarac is full of potholes. A couple of years ago humanitarian fundraising by Kozarac residents and foreign organizations -- not the municipality -- provided benches, garbage cans, and dumpsters for Kozarac. And returnees are contributing to that budget, but so are the refugees who, in these postwar years, only fill the pubs and the markets of the entire municipality during the summer.
The situation is similar in other, once burned-down places and parts of the municipality that become a “priority” to everyone only during the local elections, as was the case before the elections in 2008.
Returnees thus become a sort of mascot of the city, a Prijedor Vučko[17], a reason for the next Ambassador to show up, to stuff himself with the ćevapčići[18] of Prijedor, to be told how everyone is comfortable in Prijedor, how there is a place for everyone, and to announce with one stroke of the pen that Prijedor is no longer such a black hole.
It is time for Pavić and the powerful Sarajevo ambassadors, and the lower-echelon representatives, to come and once more sample the chicken pie of Kozarac. They will always find a welcome.
Part Five - K'o bajagi...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMfTwKMr81o
During Vučko’s Olympic days of Sarajevo, 1984, in Belgrade a band was formed, “Bajaga and the Instructors of Positive Geography”.
The politics of today’s municipal government and of the mayor of Prijedor municipality were faithfully processed and wrapped in cellophane for the 1 April issue of Oslobodjenje. Following the example of Bajaga and the popular Belgrade musicians, it could be characterized as “Pavić and the Instructors of Positive History”.
It is clear that much more water will flow down the Sana before the Prijedor Serbs, as represented by the current municipal government that they themselves selected, will stop hiding behind the overly transparent and, to tell the truth, somewhat childish veil of silence. Their hope seems to be that someone, one sunny day, will take an eraser and simply erase that recent, tormented history of that self-stigmatized city.
It is also apparent that many Prijedorans -- today -- do not support the crimes, the mass murder, and the expulsion of their neighbors that happened between 1992 and 1995; however, they remain silent, not comprehending that in this way, they are making that erstwhile black hole still blacker.
Because until the remaining 1,559 missing Prijedorans are found, and as long as the places of the crimes are not marked in a dignified way, and until the returnees are not ensured the most basic living conditions that they left behind during that bloody May of 1992, then these sweet stories will remain simply an April Fools’ joke.
It is quite obvious, in fact, that the city of Prijedor would most gladly turn to the future, to the development of the city and its tourism. And of course there is nothing bad about that. The development of the municipality and tourism would repair the economic, cultural, and social situation for all inhabitants of the municipality, and thereby, certainly, the inter-ethnic relations. The problem is that Prijedor does not know how to do so, nor does it utilize its own potential. And that, along with the constant denial of the past, is also clear from the above-described article.
But, you see, with a little imagination, that one could attract those great crowds of tourists and travelers whom Pavić and the Instructors eagerly await, but who know Prijedor only by its black history.
How? Quite easily, my friend…
Part Six - The Prijedoran Ostrich Flock
For starters, Prijedor could introduce a symbol of the city, something that would recall a concept that is specifically relevant to Prijedor. Animals, for example, are often symbols of cities. The stork is the symbol of a city that is today dear to Prijedorans, The Hague, and an excellent candidate for our celebrated city would certainly be -- the ostrich. The Prijedoran ostrich would symbolize that pathological need of the Prijedoran to stick his head in the sand, denying his own past, thinking that while his head is in the sand, that past did not even take place.
Today, in the 21st century, such an act by the municipality would inevitably attract the attention both of the domestic and foreign media, and thus of masses of European tourists, eager for new, undiscovered, European localities. Instead of the clumsy war monuments at every turn, at least every second one of them could be replaced with a great ostrich, in all (of our) colors.
If the idea were accepted, the ostrich could also replace the four Serbian “S’s”[19] that were stuck into the coat-of-arms of the city of Prijedor right after the pogrom of 1992. It is true that the ostrich, just like the four S’s in Prijedor, would only symbolize one, Serbian nation. But in the case of the ostrich, the Bosniaks and Croats would, after such a long wait for any kind of equal rights (and the return of the old symbol, the sun above the Sana), relinquish such a demand. The ostrich would, in addition to development of the city, bring prosperity to all, regardless of ethnicity. And that is what Pavić and the Instructors of Positive History, as well as all other inhabitants of Prijedor, desire.
Every year we could, following the example of similar presentations in other cities, hold an ostrich race, which would become traditional, and probably unique in the Balkans or even further afield. After just a couple of years, the “Prijedor Ostrich Race” would attract the masses from the Vardar all the way to Triglav[20]. This sort of entertainment, new and completely unknown to all of Bosnia-Herzegovina, would outshine the Corrida of Grmeč[21]. It would represent that new “high-quality concept of marketing” and introduce an attractive element to the present, ever paler, “grey Prijedor”.
Finally, likenesses of the Prijedoran ostrich could be sold as souvenirs, emblems on ink-pens, tee-shirts, and caps with the name “Prijedor”, all following the example of the world’s metropolises. The souvenir factories, of course, would be located within the municipality. It would be best for them to be in some returnee, non-Serb settlement, so as to dispel all suspicion that the city chose its ostrich simply on a whim or out of greed, but rather as a matter of true catharsis.
The factory, as happened with Agrokomerc[22], certainly would grow into the largest company in the region; only Prijedorans of all colors would work there, and those couple of Indians from Mittal Steel[23]. That mining complex, meanwhile, in the middle of the world economic crisis, would be going bankrupt and the plant at Omarska would be sold to the Ostrich Factory, which would further contribute to the development of the city.
“Ostrich” would, unlike the perfidious Mittal, immediately close the site of the former camp at Omarska and all of the locations where, in 1992, people were detained, tortured, and killed. These spaces would be converted into museums, and then, instead of searching for iron ore, the authorities would first search for the human bones scattered among the excavation sites of Omarska.
Finally, one could think about entire ostrich farms in the countryside, say, in Marićka, where Prijedorans could come with their children and visit on their days off, resting from the painstaking work in the ostrich souvenir factory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGOFg31jeGc&feature=related
To conclude
In such a setting, now economically healthy and prosperous, the next phase would be the cultural-historical tourism mentioned by Pavić (which is, at present, truly at the bottom of the list). Prijedor, as is the case with Krakow, could develop because of its very history. Millions of tourists from around the world visit Krakow annually, and the main reason is to visit the former concentration camp at Auschwitz.
It is true that nothing in history may be compared with that factory of death, but there are few places in our recent history that, like Prijedor, have been adorned with three camps. The photographs from Trnopolje and Omarska were a direct prompt for the establishment of war crimes tribunal at The Hague, and Prijedor could utilize that fact to the maximum extent in the 21st century. With a good advertising campaign for our three camp-foundlings, those three examples of human madness which we have left where they belong, in that previous twentieth century, perhaps Prijedor could even surpass in reputation the “famous,“ but “already-seen“ Srebrenica. And Prijedor could eclipse the long-feature documentary about sniping on civilians in the besieged firing range of Sarajevo.
Let us remember that, unlike in Srebrenica, the murdering in Prijedor lasted for three whole years, and unlike in Sarajevo, the non-Serbs of Prijedor were unable to run to the basements, because their houses had been robbed and torched. These factors, along with the well-known human urge -- particularly among pampered European tourists -- to visit places of misfortune and torment, would lead to the expansion of cultural-historical tourism in Prijedor. This is exactly what Pavić and the Instructors - till now obviously lacking the right idea - have eagerly been awaiting.
And just as with Krakow, Prijedor could thus, because of the vicinity of the camps, construct an international airport and so in the foreseeable future even compete with the airports at Zagreb and Banja Luka.
At that moment, finally all preconditions for the development of the other branches of tourism would be created: environmental visits, the village-spa, and above all, fishing in that once again renowned city.
In this framework, we may not ever forget the huge number of innocent, primarily Serb victims from the Second World War. Future visits to Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje should be extended with visits to Gradina and Kozara[24], as well as to Jasenovac[25] in neighboring Croatia. In this way we would honor all of the victims of our common human stupidity, but it would be clear to all, and finally to us Prijedorans, that every crime is just another crime.
All of those unnecessarily murdered, those lives senselessly taken, our common dead from the Gradinas, the Omarskas, the Jasenovaces and the Keraterms of the previous century, would unconsciously, though dead, connect us who are alive in this century.
And all of us, everyone, alive or dead, small giants and large dwarves of all colors, languages, and religions, following the example of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, would attentively observe the statue of our Prijedor Ostrich on Pašinac hill above Prijedor.
16 April, 2009
(translated from Bosnian by Peter Lippman)
[1] Daily newspaper from Sarajevo
[2]Objavio/la satkom u 16:12, 0 komentar(a), print, #
By Maja Lovrenović The iron mines of Ljubija [ly-u-bı-a] are situated in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the 1970s, the region was estimated to hold one of the largest reserves of iron ore in the Balkans. During the 1992-1995 war, the local Serb forces employed the mines’ technology to produce ‘ethnic cleansing’: the mines’ facilities were used to lock up, starve, rape, torture and kill the local Bosniaks and Croats. The mining pits and machinery were used to move and bury their bodies. The most notorious of those sites was the Omarska death camp (Thanks to the British journalist Ed Vulliamy, the existence of death camps in northwestern Bosnia was well documented and revealed to the international public, and in particular, to the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. See: ICTY summary indictment of 1995 on the Omarska death camp).
In 2004, the local Serb authorities sold 51% of the Ljubija mines to the world’s largest steel producer Arcelor Mittal, owned by one of the world’s richest men, Mr. Lakshmi Mittal. Soon afterwards, the extraction of iron ore from the pits was restarted, despite the fact that some 1.500 people are still listed as missing and believed to have been buried in secret mass graves across the mines’ complex (For more details, images and maps on the Ljubija mines, see the „Ljubija Mine Scandal“ dossier). In 2005, the survivors of these horrors were given a promise by Arcelor Mittal CEOs that they will be allowed to set up a memorial and commemorate freely at the site of the Omarska death camp. Yet, two days ago, according to Bosnian daily newspaper, the current Arcelor Mittal management denies having ever given such promise.
The global company argues that they do not want to interfere with the local ethnic politics, seemingly ignorant of the fact that their position in the ongoing Omarska death camp memorial debate suits the local Serb authorities in their attempt to eradicate the traces of crimes committed there. Furthermore, the company is also in the spotlight of Amnesty International, for ethnic discrimination in employment at the Ljubija mines.
This new denial of any responsibility for the purchased ‘troubled spot’ (a concept of social scientist Pierre Bourdieu) comes on top of the thwarted memorial negotiation process that took place in 2005-2006, when the company hired ‘Soul of Europe’, an NGO run by the English Anglican priest Donald Reeves, and paid it one hundred thousand euro to mediate the memorial initiative process between the survivors and the local Serb authorities. Attempting to turn the survivors’ quest for memorial into their own project of reconciliation between ethnic-religious groups, ‘Soul of Europe’ insisted on a memorial design that would include religious symbols of the Serb-Orthodox community.
This attempt enraged the survivors and family members of the death camp victims, who were, in turn, portrayed as ‘spoilers’ of the negotiating process both in media (e.g. Radio Netherlands Worldwide) and in the book authored by Rev. Donald Reeves in 2008. Thus botched mediating process opened new wounds and tensions on top of the older ones. Arcelor Mittal fired ‘Soul of Europe’ and since then the NGO had moved from Bosnia-Herzegovina on to Kosovo with the same missionary and ‘reconciliatory’ agenda. Nonetheless, in his book on the ‘Omarska Project’, Rev. Reeves claims to have shown “how it is possible to dismantle nationalism”.
Three years later, Arcelor Mittal grounds its rebuttal of the promise of memorial given to the survivors of the Omarska death camp on quite the opposite claim – that they do not want to interfere with the local ethnic politics. Of finding the bodies of those still listed as missing, nobody even speaks any more, as the extraction of iron ore in the Ljubija mines charts new highs.
Maja Lovrenović completed her Masters at the Department for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the VU. She is currently applying for a PhD position In her research she focuses on memory, violence and historical imagination in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina.
BAACBH would like to recognize and commend U.S. Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R-NC) and Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) for their support of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the Bosnian people.
BAACBH was alarmed by the recent events that took place in Prijedor, BiH regarding the Day of Concentration Camp Detainees that takes place on May 9th of each year at the site of the former Omarska concentration camp. Omarska was one of the most notorious concentration camps during the war in BiH. It was one of three camps set up in northern BiH to rid the country of non-Serbs where around 6,000 Bosniaks and Croats were held in appalling and brutal conditions for five months in the spring and summer of 1992. Currently, the biggest steel company in the world, ArcelorMittal owns the mining complex site in Omarska; however, no memorial commemorating the concentration camp exists to this day.
In her statement before the U.S. Congress on May 23, 2011, Rep. Myrick recognized the victims of the concentration camp in Omarska and praised British journalists Ed Vulliamy, Penny Marshall and Ian Williams on their brave reporting that helped uncover the horrors of Omarska to the world. On June 14, 2011, Rep. Smith, the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Bosnia and the Chair of the Helsinki Commission spoke at length about how remembering the victims is crucial to the reconciliation process so that atrocities that occurred in Omarska are never repeated again. Rep. Smith spoke of foreign correspondent Roy Gutman who called Omarska a "death camp'' and reported on the horrid conditions, rapes and tortures at Omarska and surrounding camps. Congressman Smith concluded his speech by stating: "The horrors that took place at Omarska and their lasting impact on Bosnian society certainly warrant such a memorial. It would provide some closure to victims, and it would counter those who are still unwilling to acknowledge the horrific crimes that, in undeniable fact, were committed there in 1992. It would also serve as a lasting reminder to us all. If atrocities on the scale of those at the Omarska camp are not appropriately remembered, they are more likely to be repeated, in some other distant town or village presently unknown to us. That is why we have these memorials: in the hope we will never forget nor ever allow such crimes to be repeated. As the Chairman of the Bosnian Caucus, I encourage the present owners of the mining complex to permit and support the establishment of a permanent memorial at Omarska. I bring this issue to the attention of my colleagues in the hope they can join me in this call."
To view the entire statements made by Congresswoman Myrick and Congressman Smith regarding the Omarska concentration camp please click on the following links:
Rep. Myrick : http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2011-05-23/pdf/CREC-2011-05-23-pt1-PgE919-4.pdf#page=1
Rep. Smith : http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2011-06-14/pdf/CREC-2011-06-14-pt1-PgE1092-3.pdf#page=2
Despite the recent arrest and extradition of Mladic, the war in former Yugoslavia (1991-1995) has largely been forgotten. Fifteen years is, after all, a long time and many things have happened since; other wars have been waged, some are being waged at this very moment, we all have our own problems to worry about and who can think of the horrors in the world all the time?
Yet, many like to recall the splendid Yugoslavia in the times before its breakup, a country of friendly people and a captivating sea, where the Winnetou movie series was filmed; the country where people spoke a language similar to our own and where – when Czechoslovakia lacked goods – almost everything could be found.
That country dissolved as did ours, indeed as roughly the same time. Unlike our ‘Velvet Separation,’ the breakup of Yugoslavia has become notorious for its cruelty, ethnic cleansing and genocide accompanied by crimes against humanity such as mass murder, torture of civilians and the systematic deployment of sexual abuse and other forms of violence aimed at citizenry.
In this context, the concentration camps Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje established by Bosnian Serbs in northern Bosnia at the outset of the Yugoslavian conflict became known as ‘death camps.’ It is in such facilities that members of non-Serbian ethnic groups – especially Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) – were kept prisoners in inhumane conditions; where they were systematically beaten, tortured and, finally, killed. Besides Bosniaks, people of other nationalities were persecuted there, most of them Croats and also one Czech man.
I first heard of him in Sarajevo earlier this year when I spoke to one Satko Mujagić, a former inmate and survivor of the Omarska concentration camp. Life is full of coincidences that cannot be explained. Perhaps it was fate; who knows? How would you make sense of the fact that you have a long-lasting interest in crimes against humanity, especially those committed during the Yugoslavian wars in the 1990s, you even write your doctoral dissertation on the topic, and then you embark on a work-travel trip to Sarajevo that pertains to a completely different issue, and when you get there, your Bosnian colleague – a genuine, sympathetic and intelligent person, among other things – tells you that he had been imprisoned in the most notorious concentration camp during the war.
We discussed it for hours. He ordered a beer, lit a cigarette and started talking. If you didn’t hear his story, you would never be able to tell, that this man, 190cms tall with almost 100kgs in weight, had been in a concentration camp. But he had been there. At the time when Satko – only two years older than me – was tortured in prison and weighed less than 50 kilos, I was spending my summer with friends, worrying about beer and girls. He showed me a photograph of what he had looked like at the end of his devastating ordeal, when he was leaving Omarska; skeletal with eyes of a wounded animal. The same faces as those we know from the photographs taken some fifty years previously, at Auschwitz.
We were in the middle of our conversation and, out of a sudden, he said:
‘Did you know that when I was kept prisoner in Omarska, a Czech man died in one of the other Serbian concentration camps in the area?’
‘What?’ Was all I could reply.
‘Yes, there was a doctor of Czech origins in prison in one of the Serbian concentration camps close to Prijedor, it was at the time of my imprisonment. His name was Željko Sikora.’
I was deeply shaken by this information. How did a Czech end up in a Serbian concentration camp and why did he die there? Knowing that a person with Czech roots died there kept me awake that and other nights.
Dr. Željko Sikora was born in 1957 and worked as a gynecologist in Prijedor hospital. He was imprisoned in the Keraterm concentration camp, together with other representatives of the non-Serbian intelligentsia during the so-called Prijedor Genocide (also known as Prijedor Massacre) which was, after Srebrenica, the second largest massacre committed during the Bosnian War.
What follows from Minka Čehajič’s testimony given on 14 May 2002, testifying in the case of Milomir Stakić charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is that doctor Željko Sikora together with other scholars, doctors and prominent people of non-Serbian origin were incarcerated in Prijedor in a local police station at the end of May 1992. Subsequently, Mr. Sikora was transported to the Keraterm concentration camp. Several sources independently (of each other) stated that Dr. Sikora ‘disappeared’ following his detention and imprisonment, and it is therefore reasonable to presume that he and other doctors – Dr. Enes Begić, Dr. Osman Mahmuljin and Dr. Razim Musić – were beaten to death in the aforementioned concentration camp.
(Dr. Milomir Stakic in the court of The Hague Tribunal)
It is difficult to document precisely what had happened and how. Nevertheless, it remains certain that in 2001 a mass grave was discovered in the Jakarina kosa area, close to Prijedor, which held the mortal remains of some 372 consequently exhumed bodies. One of them was Dr. Sikora’s.
This alone is a horrifying story, but it does not end here. Not only was Dr. Sikora killed, but his name and good reputation were damaged too. The story of Dr. Željko Sikora is known as an example of intense abuse of the media for propaganda purposes during the Bosnian War with the intention of creating an air of fear, hatred and violence. Serbian propaganda deliberately produced such atmosphere, on both the national and regional levels. The aim was to produce a reason for the carnage against civilians which was later justified by the Serbian media that helped spread information which leaves us speechless even today.
The “news” of Serb civilians beaten to death in the Croatian town of Pakrac in 1991, of forty murdered Serbian children in another Croatian town, Vukovar, that same year, or of Serbian children being fed to lions in the ZOO during the siege of Sarajevo have never been confirmed. Neither has the “story” of Dr. Željko Sikora whom, prior to the Prijedor Massacre, the Serbian media portrayed – together with doctors Mujadžić and Mahmuljin – as a “Monster Doctor” who forced Serbian women into involuntary abortions if their newborn child was to be a boy, and who castrated Serbian newborn males. It is unnecessary to point out that such stories were purposefully construed pieces of fiction. In the atmosphere of deliberately stirred hatreds further fuelled by nationalist circles, this played a decisive role. The non-Serbian intelligentsia from Prijedor was stigmatized to legitimise what was about to happen. The article on a “Monster Doctor” published in Kozarski Vjesnik and the news broadcast in that same spirit on Prijedor Radio were doubtlessly used as a pretext for Dr. Sikora’s detention and they also contributed to the fact that he was then beaten to death in the Keraterm concentration camp.
I am well-aware that Dr. Željko Sikora was “only” one of at least 3200 persons killed or missing in Prijedor, although some sources talk of more than 5000 people directly from Prijedor and another 14000 in its vicinity which fell victim to the ethnic cleansing in the area. All available public sources and the testimony referred to above further state that Dr. Sikora was Croatian and not Czech. Thanks to help from Satko Mujagić and his friends, it was uncovered that Dr. Željko Sikora was, in fact, a descendant of an old mining foremen of Czech origin, who came to the Gornja Puharska region in northern Bosnia from Bohemia during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Dr. Sikora’s body was found at Jakarina Kosa, part of the Ljubija iron ore mines where his ancestors had sought work. His remains were brought to the town of Slavonska Požega, Croatia, in 2004.
I do not think it is important to know whether Dr. Sikora was Croat or Czech. What is significant is the fact that Dr. Sikora and hundreds of people of different nationalities were beaten to death in the Keraterm concentration camp, and until now there is only a small memorial plaque embedded in the grass at the site to remind the world of the camp’s existence. The same is true of the worst Bosnian concentration camp Omarska, even though since 2004 there have been attempts to raise a proper memorial there. The current owner of the property, Arcelor Mittal, now mines iron ore in Omarska and is thus reluctant to interrupt its industrial output to pay homage to those that paid the ultimate price so others would not have to. It is a sad commentary that so many people perished – in the worst conditions – for no more than an enflamed sense of national identity. It is sadder still that industrial output and quotas now prevent proper homage to the fallen.
Bohumil Hnidek
. HON. RUSS CARNAHAN
OF MISSOURI
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Mr. CARNAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the victims of a notorious concentration camp in Omarska, located in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the summer of 1992, Omarska was the site of mass human rights violations in an attempt to drive non-Serbs from this part of the country.
When the world learned of these mass atrocities, U.N. prosecutors brought cases against many of the perpetrators of these crimes.
The ICTY found several guilty of crimes against humanity.
Remembering the victims of Omarska allows the survivors and families of the victims to mark this tragic chapter.
This is critical to reconciliation, and to the future of Bosnia.
I strongly urge all companies, municipalities, and others to allow anniversary events to take place in Omarska.
It is critical that all involved allow a memorial to be built, and for all parties to respect the commemoration of Omarska and the right of remembrance so that the horrors of Omarska are never repeated again.
"In 2014 it will be 100 years ago that the atentat of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in
The European Parliament, with the support of the Social and Democrats will ask the European Commission whether they will support the request by the city of
Emine Bozkurt adds: "War is devastating and leaves marks on people's lives. Sometimes it seems easier for people to forget the past to be able to go on with their lives. But it is only when we deal with our past, when we recognize and face history that we can look openly to the future. Today, we celebrate Europe Day! BiH wants to be part of the European Union. Therefore, it needs positive peaceful messages of peace and reconciliation between its peoples. Not only in
"Today, at the place of the former concentration camp Omarska, people from
BY NIHADA HASIC - 06.05.2011 17:31
The Mayor of Prijedor Municipality and the President of the Democratic People’s Alliance (DNS) has a very specific recipe by means of which he’s trying to defend the citizens of Prijedor from new conflicts and discharges of hatred.
Marko Pavic is conducting his protector’s mission by opposing the gathering of the members of the Association of Concentration Camp Detainees of BiH in front of the former Omarska Camp, planned for May 9th – the Victory Day over Fascism. Gathering of the victims is considered by the DNS to be a political provocation, which may have unforeseeable harmful consequences for the coexistence in Prijedor. And how much he himself cares for the tolerance and the consequences of his “peaceable” statements is best illustrated through his elucidation as to why the gathering of former Bosniak and Croat detainees is unacceptable at the location where they were detained in the summer of 1992.
“The Day of Victory over Fascism is not appropriate for holding of such a manifestation, unless the organizer of the gathering has some connections with those who plundered
The irony with which the victims are brought into connection with the fascism of the first half of the 20th century is even more unacceptable as this statement was uttered by a man who has just two years ago in
Declaratively, the Mayor of Prijedor is all for coexistence at present as well. That is exactly why, as he claims, he’s opposing the gathering of the former concentration camp detainees whose participants shall “discharge their indignation and hatred, leaving the citizens of Prijedor with an evil seed that they shall afterwards have to be struggling with and overcoming it”. It is praiseworthy that Pavic is thinking on a long term and warning about possible consequences of other people’s statements and actions whereas he’s not thinking about what he’s achieving with his prohibition. Should he have observed the interest of his citizens and compatriots he’d surely have sustained himself from embargo and connecting victims with fascists. With his decision to, shortly before the “disputable” gathering in Omarska, additionally heat up the boiling political atmosphere in BiH, Pavic leaves an open room for prohibitions also of some other commemorative gatherings, which we, unfortunately, abound with.
As per schedule, after Prijedor, the next in line is the commemoration of the anniversary of the sufferings of the soldiers of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) at Brcanska
In case on May 3rd last year the Sarajevan police had observed more the “wisdom” effused in forums and the “maturity” of the Mayor, Alija Behmen, the families of the killed JNA soldiers wouldn’t then, or this May, pay honour to their killed relatives in the former Dobrovoljacka Street in Sarajevo. Behmen as well talked last year, as Pavic does these days, about political manipulation, opposed the gathering in the centre of Sarajevo, by which, as he said, the aggressor and his victim would be equalized. Even the City Council of Sarajevo had supported Behmen’s decision to prohibit the commemoration of the JNA soldiers, and the session during which the embargo for Dobrovoljacka was confirmed abounded with, to put it mildly, the speech of hatred directed towards the Serb people.
Luckily, the then-Minister of Interior of Sarajevo Canton and the Police Commissioner have decided to do their job observing solely the law, and not the political instructions whoever they may be coming from. The responsible behaviour of the head of the Sarajevan Ministry of Interior had necessitated the commitment of a huge number of police officers, the city had been reminiscent of the times of curfew, but all had passed peacefully. The same scenario was repeated this year as well in
The parallel Sarajevo – Prijedor is just one of the illustrative examples as to how much the political leaders can direct the behaviour of the associations of the past war’s victims was not mentioned here either as a counter-point in a story of whose pain is the greater one. The sufferings and traumas experienced are to a greater extent more difficult and more long-lasting than the political speeches on commemorations. They shall, unfortunately, not disappear after al-Fatihas have been recited and after candles have been lit at the crime scene, but they should nevertheless not be worsened by depriving the victims of their right to remembrance and by misusing them for the purpose of increasing one’s own political rating.
The non-involvement of politics with the wounds of the war proved worth of gold two-three days ago in Konjic. For the killed members of Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and the BiH Army, a common memorial stone was laid in spite of the fact that these two armies were in the war against each other. The names of those killed found themselves on one spot as a result of the decision made by their families, who, far away from the public eye, had been preparing for this action for a long time. Once the entire arduous job had been done, again somebody was there to make profit on the parents’ tears. This time it was Zivko Budimir, the President of the Federation of Bosnia and
(Source: http://www.nezavisne.com/komentari/kolumne/Strucnjaci-za-mrznju-88684.html)
The municipal authorities of Prijedor are not prepared to allow the former concentration camp detainees of Omarska concentration camp to visit that location on May 9th.
The Mayor of Prijedor Marko Pavic considers this to be a “very sensitive date, since the Day of Europe and the Victory Day over Fascism are celebrated on May 9th, and the commemoration and visit to the location of the former concentration camp could lead to serious consequences”.
Pavic stated that he does not support the “political gathering” that the Association of Concentration Camp Detainees in Bosnia and Herzegovina has announced for May 9th in Omarska, claiming that “the organizers of the gathering have bad intentions towards Prijedor and that this is contrary to everything which does good to this city”.
“Association of Concentration Camp Detainees in
He also bring forwards the claim that such gathering would represent the “taking back of the national, religious and all other relations to some previous times, which is contrary to the deliberation of the citizens of Prijedor to build a better future and prosperous municipality”.
“This is a well-known action of the people who come to Prijedor to spill out their indignation or hatred on a territory and then depart, leaving the sown evil seed for us to struggle with afterwards trying to overcome it”, says Pavic and adds that he and “most of the citizens of Prijedor” are against holding such gathering, and that he expects that those responsible for this field shall act in line with that attitude.
“Let the organizers, and also those giving their consent, go just three days back and remember the Dobrovoljacka Street in Sarajevo (a.k.a. Sarajevo column case; note by translator) where it was again not possible to reach the very crime scene but only the start of the street, and the same ones who banned the gathering in Dobrovoljacka Street now want to make a political gathering on the territory of our municipality”, stated the Mayor of Prijedor.
The local Federation of Veterans Associations of the People’s Liberation War of Yugoslavia, as well as veterans’ associations, have addressed an open letter to the “Arcelor Mittal Prijedor” mine and to the Ministry of Interior of Republic of Srpska, in which they say that it is “inappropriate and inopportune that the day, which is celebrated in the whole of liberal Europe as the day of victory over fascism, is taken as the Day of Concentration Camp Detainees of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.
They say that they are not against visiting of the location where the citizens of
The Association of Concentration Camp Detainees in Bosnia and Herzegovina intends to commemorate the 9th of May as the Day of Concentration Camp Detainees of Bosnia and Herzegovina by visiting the monument to the perished citizens of Kozarac, and also by visiting Omarska afterwards where it is envisaged to have the addresses by the members of the Association, as well as by the members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zeljko Komsic and Bakir Izetbegovic.
Approval for this gathering was requested from the Ministry of Interior of
Several thousand of detainees have passed through “Omarska”, out of which several hundred were killed in 1992.
(Source: Federal News Agency of
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The Royal Castle in Warsaw, located at the entrance to the Warsaw Old Town, was the seat of Polish ruling elites for centuries. This grand architectural monument, built in Mannerist early baroque style, was where the Poles drafted Europe’s second-oldest, but first modern codified national constitution, in May 1791. In its long history, the Royal Castle has been repeatedly ravaged and plundered by Swedish, German and Russian armies. |
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Polish Baroque Jewel - Zamek Królewski w Warszawie
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On December 7, 2010, the Great Assembly Hall of the Royal Castle staged an important event. Surrounded by the statues of Apollo and Minerva, embodying the allegories of Justice and Peace, under the gigantic painting on the ceiling that depicts the Disentanglement of Chaos, the crème de la crème of international figures from the fields of politics and science gathered to celebrate an historical event that took place forty years ago. This time Egon Bahr, former Federal Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the German Social Democrats, Bronisław Komorowski, Polish President, political activists and other guests got together to analyze the past and discuss the perspectives for the future. To hold such an event in Warsaw was considered unthinkable forty years ago but over the decades it has become a commonplace.
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40 years after - Panel discussions at Great Assembly Hall |
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From 1939 to 1945, during the Nazi occupation of Poland, close to six million Poles were killed and the country fell into ruins. After the war, in retaliation, Poland responded by expelling Germans from the country, which additionally strained bilateral relations. During the time of the Cold War, the Soviet Union installed Communist government in East Germany, and Poland became politically connected through the membership in the Warsaw Pact. Polish Communist propaganda was therefore quite positive towards the reconciliation with the East German allies and, intrinsically, utterly negative towards Germans from the West. |
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German Wehrmacht troops during the Warsaw Uprising, 1944
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The relations between Western Germany and Poland in the mid-1960s were strained in every meaning of the word. Nevertheless, gestures that followed triggered the avalanche of change. Everyone knew the reconciliation would be a long and fragile process. On November 18, 1965, Polish bishops, led by Bolesław Kominek, sent a pastoral letter to their Catholic and Protestant German fellows. The letter was an invitation to the 1000 Year Anniversary Celebrations of Poland's Christianization. This groundbreaking act marked the beginning of a new era in relations between Germany and Poland. The letter caused a strong reaction by the Communist authorities, which infringed any further attempts by a severe, state-organized anti-church campaign from 1965, but the process of reconciliation could no longer be stopped. Several years later, on December 7, 1970, in an effort to ease tensions, German Chancellor Willy Brandt laid a wreath at the foot of a memorial honoring the Jewish people killed during the failed Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Unexpectedly and spontaneously, Brandt fell to his knees in silence. Brandt’s gesture was a striking symbol of reconciliation between the two countries. The Treaty of Warsaw signed that day gave this event a political foundation and initiated political cooperation between the two countries on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain. |
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Willy Brandt’s monumental Kniefall von Warschau
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Willy Brandt succeeded to surprise everyone. Polish Communists were astonished, Polish intellectuals honored, yet the Polish media dominated by the regime did not publish the photographs of the kneeling German Chancellor. He was widely praised in the West and was awarded the Man of the Year by the Time magazine. But back home, in Germany, the Chancellor became an object of hatred to part of the population. Brandt received many anonymous letters saying that he should be hanged or pinned against wall because of the gesture he made. According to the opinion polls in Germany at the time, the majority felt that his humility was exaggerated. At the same time, Bonn recognized the Western Polish post-Second World War border, the line along the rivers Oder and Neisse. Brandt’s political opponents and considerable part of the population understood this as a gesture of treason and a direct slap in the face to millions of displaced Germans who had left the former Eastern Regions. Yet Willy Brandt saw it as “a symbol for politics and action… that created a new image of Germans. This is the only normal thing I can think of doing in Poland.” In 1971 Willy Brandt received the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the only German that received the award in the post-war period. During the panel discussion celebrating 40th anniversary of the German-Polish reconciliation, former German Foreign Minister Prof. Dr. Adam Daniel Rotfeld said: “Willy Brandt was a very special person. I keep meeting politicians, and nowadays they think politics are all about cynicism. This is not the main thing; you have to show human side.” Since then, the two countries signed treaties, created economic partnerships and cultural and educational exchanges in the coming decades. It is important to note that the tempo of their socio-economic cooperation significantly increased after the fall of Communism in 1989 and reached its peak when Poland became NATO and the EU member state. December 1991 marked a milestone in Polish-German relations when the parliaments of both countries ratified a treaty of friendship and cooperation. Warsaw saw Germany as Poland's key to integration into the West. In turn, Berlin considered Poland the gateway to vast economic opportunities in the East. Yet the process has not been as smooth. Despite many positive signs of a lasting reconciliation between Germany and Poland many Poles in 1990’s remained suspicious of their powerful western neighbor. Reconciliation is time consuming process and in the case of Germany and Poland primarily has required a consistent exchange of top-down gestures which in return produced fertile ground for rapprochement among general populations. |
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The results of the 2010 polling among Poles on the German – Polish bilateral relations are in favor of the progress achieved: almost 70 % of Poles have nothing against a German living permanently in Poland, obtaining Polish citizenship, holding a high office or even having German daughter and/or son in law. The perception about Poles also changed in Germany in the last several years, and Polish people are increasingly associated with diligence and tolerance. And the process is still ongoing… Although the scale of atrocities and political background of the Polish Second Word War experience and the 1990s Yugoslav wars differentiate significantly, they still share the universal notion of human suffering. Destruction, killings, rape, hatred, and sorrow were present on the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto, woods around Srebrenica, stables in the village of Križančevo and in Osijek homes. |
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Serb paramilitary troops in Bijeljina, 1992
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The reconciliation process among the states of former Yugoslavia is in its infancy stages and we can see by comparison that reconciliation between the populations of Germany and Poland also took time, efforts, good politics and wise people. Reconciliation is time consuming, politically heavy, socially controversial process of everlasting dilemmas. It takes political dynamics to reconcile and look into the future, but also economic, educational, and cultural partnerships that now exist between Germany and Poland. Today there are 6,000 mixed German-Polish marriages, 650 cities from both countries signed cooperative agreements, Germans are listed in top three countries when it comes to foreign direct investment in Poland and 50,000 German and Polish students are taking part in academic exchange programs. This is the result of forty years of hard work which has not ceased but is constantly progressing and being upgraded. |
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Year 2010 and 40th anniversary of Brant’s “knee fall” was marked by the series of very significant political gestures in the Balkans. Can the countries of the former Yugoslavia learn from the Polish-German reconciliation experience after the Second World War? Public apologies by high officials do make a difference and send a positive signal to all others, but they must be followed by concrete actions, economic cooperation, cultural interaction and other incentives that harmonized Germans and Poles at the time. We certainly believe that the region should move into this direction, showing that political stability is improving. See also other publications of Think Tank Populari at www.populari.org |
By means of this Declaration we would like to draw attention to the present-day politics of the Republic of Serbia which negates war crimes and the existence of concentration camps during the Nineties. This politics negates the main World War Two heritage – the equality of all nations from the area of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
This politics of negation, denial and impunity of crimes is being produced and implemented by national institutions, extreme right-wing organizations and supporter groups thus encouraging violence and hatred.
Through political rehabilitation of the Chetnik movement and Draza Mihajlovic the history of World War Two is being revised, which leads to the equalization of fascism and anti-fascism.
In spite of the understandable needs for approximation and affiliation on a cultural and economic plan, we condemn the association of the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska outside the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is directly undermining the integrity and territorial sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and hindering the reunification of all its nations.
We welcome the statements addressed from the Summit in Karadjordjevo held on April 26th, 2011, which emphasize the essential need for reconciliation, stabilization of relations and normalization of life in the region.
Convinced that there can be no real reconciliation without sincerely facing up to the events of the past wars:
We hereby invite the authorities of the Republic of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Srpska and Prijedor Municipality – as well as the public in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and throughout former Yugoslavia – to support the nitiative of former Omarska concentration camp detainees for building of a memorial centre at the location of today’s Arcelor Mittal mine. The mine is located in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the location of former Omarska concentration camp, which had been formed in 1992 based on a decision of the civil authorities of Prijedor municipality. In this camp, more than 3300 citizens of that very municipality were imprisoned and tortured, and based on the estimates more than 700 people were killed.
We deem that the sufferings of civilians in the Omarska concentration camp, as well as in other concentration camps formed during the wars in the Nineties, must be honourably commemorated so as to become part of public memory, on the path towards re-establishment of the co-habitation in the areas of former Yugoslavia.
By its decision of December 1st, 2005, Arcelor Mittal Company has supported the project to build a memorial centre inside the mine. By supporting this very initiative, the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska would clearly show readiness to actively and critically define their stance regarding the mass crimes, systematically committed against non-Serb civilians;
We also invite Arcelor Mittal to reverse their company’s current discriminatory policy favourizing employment on an ethnic basis. This practice represents the post-war continuation of ethnic cleansing by other means.
We demand that the Republic of Serbia bans and prevents the operation of the extreme right-wing organizations and supporter groups which encourage and commit violence and promote hate speech in public and media space.
This Declaration affirms the anti-fascism of all nations in the territory of former Yugoslavia as a common value, heritage of the contemporary European society and basis of equality and normalization of human relations in the region.
This Declaration was initiated by:
Women in Black
Working Group “Four Faces of Omarska”
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
Group Monument
Centre for Women’s Studies
This Declaration is supported by:
Association of Concentration Camp Detainees in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Association of Concentration-camp Detainees “Prijedor 92”
Sign the petition at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiB7Be0wNsg
"On the fifth session of the Supreme Defence Council of Yugoslavia, held on August 7th, 1992, which started at 19.15 and lasted until 21.00, those present included Dobrica Cosic, President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Momir Bulatovic, President of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, Prime Minister of Montenegro, Zivota Panic, Chief of General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, Zoran Sokolovic, Minister of Interior, Pavle Bulatovic, Defence Minister, and Pavle Strugar, Commander of II Army. Among other issues discussed in the meeting were the concentration camps and killings in
Dobrica Cosic: See what happened with the concentration camps, how the concentration camps have been used?
Zivota Panic: The worst thing is, Mister President, that we don’t know what will be tomorrow and what they are planning for us. They are now set upon the concentration camps; they gave lists as per concentration camp: 250, 370, 2000, 5000, etc.
Momir Bulatovic: They’re showing it on television.
Zivota Panic: They’re showing what they’ve edited.
Dobrica Cosic: What is this Omarska concentration camp?
Zivota Panic: They’re keeping the Muslim captives in prisons. The prisons have a temporary character. Our guys are at least keeping them, while they are killing all of ours. Everyone believes them, don’t believe us. This is all staged. They staged this and they just go along this direction and they keep drawing that network diagram only.
Dobrica Cosic: Yes."
Published in Dani magazine, issue no. 723, April 21st, 2011.
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This discussion referred to the recordings of discovery of Omarska and Trnopolje concentration camps, made on August 5th, 1992 by the British ITN Television. Instead of stopping the killings, the Serbian authorities denied the existence of the camps and edited the pictures themselves. Already on August 6th, the dissolution of Omarska concentration camp started. Over 1200 survivors were transferred to
Teams of journalists from all over the world who visited Omarska until August 21st were told that Omarska is not a camp for civilians but for prisoners of war and that the stories of tortures and cruel murders of hundreds of camp prisoners in June and July 1992 are false, while even in the night of August 5th/6th, the last group of 124 camp prisoners was taken away from the camp. They were executed in groups of 3 by shooting into the pit of Hrastova Glavica near Sanski Most. The prisoners were offered a cigarette prior to the killings, and the executioner at one point sat down on the chair because he got tired of standing.
On August 9th, the day of closing of the Summer Olympic G
On the day of final closure of Omarska, 21 August 1992, 5 detainees 'disappeared': 2 men, registered by the International Red Cross on 12 August in Omarska (Faiz Mujkanovic and Mato Tadic) and 3 women. One of the women, Velida Mahmuljin, local teacher, was found in one of 63 mass graves in Prijedor municipality and reburried in Kozarac.
(During the several prosecutions, The Tribunal in
(translation in English by M. Kunalic)
(Omarska camp, August 1992)
Summary of developments until April 2011
About Omarska Camp on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omarska_camp
Paragraph on Omarska from the report of the UN Commission on Prijedor, December 28th, 1994
http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/V.htm#II-VIII.A
October 2004 - First letters were sent to Mr. Lakshmi Mittal in London and Mr. Roeland Baan in Rotterdam, CEO Europe of Mittal Steel, since April 30th, 2004, the owner of 51% shaers of the Omarska Mines to build a memorial in former concentration camp in Omarska.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/dec/02/balkans
http://pr-india.blogspot.com/2004/12/lakshmi-mittals-pr-disaster.html
(Omarska Camp, August 5th, 1992)
Milomir Stakic, 1992 Mayor of Prijedor, in the courtroom of the Tribunal in Hague) He faced eight charges in all, ranging from genocide and extermination, to deportation and persecution in the form of destroying local villages, as well as mosques and Catholic churches. He was eventually found guilty of five charges, while being acquitted of personal responsibility in the genocide. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but through the appeals process reduced his sentence to forty years.
(cemetary of wartime victims in Kozarac)
January 14th, 2005 - Meeting took place in Rotterdam between Mr. Baan and the representatives of Foundation OPTIMISTI 2004, Satko Mujagic and Sten Fierant. The following was agreed:
· The White House should stay untouched and in the current state (After seeing the picture of the White House Mr. Baan did not consider this building “of any particular value for the production”)
· The access to the camp in the future will be guaranteed, especially on the Memorial days (May 24th and August 6th). Also on other days the entrance should be guaranteed;
· The White House should (in some longer term) become a Memorial Center. Regarding the last request Mr. Baan pointed out that Mittal Steel needs more time and will come back to this matter later on.
http://www.bosnia.org.uk/bosrep/report_format.cfm?articleid=3023&reportid=169
Following the meeting Mr. Baan received the book “The Killing Days” of Kemal Pervanic and the radio documentary “Extending the Ethnical Borders.” The book “The Circle of Hell” of former detainee Rezak Hukanovic, which was sent to Mr. Mittal earlier has apparently been lost.
http://www.ex-yupress.com/dani/dani114.html
http://www.domovina.net/ljubija/050408_dani.html
April 15th, 2005 - Mr. Baan had a telephone conversation with Mr. Mujagic in which he explained that Mittal Steel approached Mr. Donald Reeves and Peter Pelz and their organization “Soul of Europe” to further work out the idea for a Memorial Center in Omarska.
After several meetings with Kemal Pervanic in London and paid by Mittal Steel an amount of 100.000 GBP, the Soul of Europe worked on this initiative intensively during 2005 in Prijedor together with survivors of Omarska (Rezak Hukanovic, Muharem Murselovic, Nusreta Sivac, Mirsad Duratovic), Emsuda Mujagic, the management of the company in Prijedor and others, including local Serbs.
http://www.soulofeurope.org/gallery7.htm
December 1st 2005 - at a press conference in Banja Luka, Mittal Steel (represented by Mr. Will Smith, Ms. Petra van Helden and Mr. Mladen Jelaca) announced that there will be a Memorial Center in the White House in Omarska on a 34 ha area which shall be isolated from the rest of the company. Furthermore, Mittal Steel will finance the whole project. There were many announcements in the media about this decision in the Netherlands, Great Britain and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4449996.stm
http://www.idoconline.info/digitalarchive/public/index.cfm?fuseaction=serve&ElementId=146802
Shortly after this event, the initiative was resisted by the Municipality of Prijedor, who was responsible for setting up of the concentration camps Omarska, Trnopolje and Keraterm (according to several verdicts of the International Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague) in the summer of 1992. After meeting with former British Ambassador, the Mayor of Prijedor, Marko Pavic said that the Memorial in Omarska would undermine relations between different ethnic groups in Prijedor. In October 2009 Pavic even accused former prisoners of Omarska of lying, saying that in 1992 there were no camps in Prijedor region.
http://www.idoconline.info/digitalarchive/public/index.cfm?fuseaction=serve&ElementId=144172
http://www.mojprijedor.net/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=267
Furthermore, due to the non-transparent work of Soul of Europe, the online petition was started by Kemal Pervanic and Lee Bryant. Also some organizations of survivors in Bosnia and Herzegovina critisized the work of Soul of Europe.
http://headgroups.com/hg/display/om/Welcome
http://headgroups.com/hg/display/om/2006/02/03/The+symbolic+role+of+Omarska+in+the+Bosnian+genocide
19th December 2005 - Prior to their meeting in Rotterdam with Mr Baan, Mr Reeves and Pelz met with the representatives of the OPTIMISTI 2004 Foundation. The main issue of the meeting was the criticism from the side of some survivors and the fact that the Prijedor municipality is openly against the initiative.
January 21st, 2006 - Amnesty International presented its report on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, using Mittal as a case study.
http://headgroups.com/hg/display/om/2006/01
February 20th, 2006 - Mittal decided to put the initiative on hold.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4731646.stm
For immediate release (Mittal Steel Press Release)
Mittal Steel's Suspension of the Omarska Memorial Project Is Temporary
London, 21 February 2006 - “Mittal Steel wants to clarify that the suspension of the Omarska Memorial project is temporary and that Mittal Steel did not ‘abandon’ the project as published by some media. Mittal Steel is the majority shareholder of the New Ljubija iron ore mines near Prijedor since April 2004 and as such, it re-states its commitment to the Omarska Memorial project and ultimately hopes that it will prove possible to continue with developments and see the project through to a conclusion supported by all parties.”
April 10th, 2006 - All involved initiative parties reacted to this press release and sent a letter to Mittal Steel, with the request to continue with the initiative.
May 19th, 2006 - In Rotterdam, a meeting took place between the representatives of survivors and family members of the victims. - Mr. Lee Bryant, Kemal Pervanic and Satko Mujagic, and from the side of Mittal Steel - Mr. Will Smith, Mrs. Kirsten Ireland and Mrs. Petra van Helden. Mr Lee Bryant presented a document with a proposal how to continue the initiative.
August 2006 - various meetings took place between initiators from Diaspora and from Bosnia. In the meantime Mittal Steel asked Sir Stephen Smith to resume and implement Reeves’s project. Mr. Smith wrote a proposition which was received by Mittal in August 2006.
From September 2006 Mittal Steel was working on its own Foundation, after which the initiative would be resumed.
In 2007 Mittal Steel became part of Arcelor Mittal (with headquarters in Luxembourg and London), with Ms. Felicidad Cristobal as a General Manager of Arcelor Mittal Foundation.
Spring 2007- Mittal Steel organized a conference in Malta on the issue of the Memorial in Omarska
Mr. Milorad Dodik, the President of Republika Srpska, stated in a conversation with the representatives of the Union of Former Camp Prisoners that he agrees with the building of a Memorial Center in Omarska.
May 29th, 2007 - Another letter to Mittal Steel was sent by OPTIMISTI 2004 Foundation requesting the continuation of the project and a meeting with Ms. Cristobal.
http://www.bosnia.org.uk/news/news_body.cfm?newsid=2281
October 2007 - In Luxembourg Mr. Satko Mujagic met with Ms. Cristobal and Mr. Langefeld. During the very constructive meeting Ms. Cristobal stated that Mittal still wants to finalize the project but only with support of local community.
Headquarters of Arcelor Mittal in Luxembourg
Every year on August 6th the Assosiation of former camp prisoners "Prijedor 92" and "Kozarac" organize the commemoration visits to the site of Omarska Camp.
Over the past few years, the visitors have not been allowed to visit all of the premises that were used in 1992, but only the White House. It has been noticed that the White House has been painted in the meantime (the blood traces which are result or 1992 tortures can no longer be seen).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alihodza/sets/72157594229610644/
Ed Vulliamy in Omarska, August 6th 2006 (foto L. Bryant)
http://www.bim.ba/en/230/10/29850/
May 24th, 2010 and April 11th, 2011 - Visiting German students (from Regensburg resp. Munich University) were not allowed to enter buildings other than the White House. (on April 11th 2011 the students from Munich, guided by Mirsad Duratovic and Sudbin Music from the Assosiation of former camp prisoners "Prijedor 92" could 'enjoy the view' of the sheep grazing around the White House in the field where human corpses had been thrown in the summer of 1992.)
http://mojprijedor.com/com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1430&Itemid=28
'access forbidden' (photo L. Bryant, 2006)
Autumn 2008 - with the permission of the owner some scenes of the movie 'St. George shoots the dragon' were filmed in former Omarska camp, later submitted by
In September and October 2010 public meetings took place in Belgrade and Banja Luka organized by Ms Milica Tomic and the Working Group “Four faces of Omarska”.
http://milicatomic.wordpress.com/new-projects-2/
http://www.msub.org.rs/en/izlo%C5%BEba/one-day
http://www.zeneucrnom.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=469&Itemid=78
http://www.kunstaspekte.de/index.php?tid=65507&action=termin
February 2011 - representatives of several organizations from Bosnia and Herzegovina visited a former camp in Dachau.
(Crematorium in Dachau)
May 9th, 2011 - The Union of Camp Prisoners of Bosnia and Herzegovina is planning to visit the camp and organize a round-table meeting in the canteen together with the guests from Belgrade, Milica Tomic and the Four Faces of Omarska Group, Women in Black and Ms. Sonja Biserko.
April 20th 2011 - At the meeting in Prijedor the representatives of Arcelor Mittal (Mr Muraree Mukharjee, Mr Mladen Jelaca and Mr Predrag Sorga) informed the representatives of the assosiations of camp prisoners (Mr Murat Tahirovic, Mr Mirsad Duratovic, Mr Sabahudin Garibovic and Mr Sudbin Music) that the access to the former camp Omarska on May 9th will not be granted.
May 5th 2011 - in an open letter, the Mayor of Prijedor accused the vistors of Omarska for 'celebrating those who destroyed Europe 60 years ago'.
May 10th 2011 - One day after the visit, on grafitti In Cirkin Polje, suburb of Prijedor was written: 'Muslims and Gypsies into camps'
May 16th 2011 - Women in Black, the Group '4 faces of Omarska' and other organizations from Belgrade wrote a letter to President of Serbia Tadic, Pres. of RS Dodik, 3 members of Bosnian Presidency, the Mayor of Prijedor Pavic, and the CEO of Arcelor Mittal in which they asked support for continuation of the Omarska memorial initiative.
May 27th 2011 - the CEO of Arcelor Mittal answered the letter stating that the company does not want to get involved in politics and that Mittal never committed itself to build a memorial in Omarska.
May/ June 2011 - 3 US Congressman and Ms Emine Bozkurt, a member of European Parlament supported the initative for a Memorial in Omarska.
Some articles on Omarska:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1992/aug/07/warcrimes.edvulliamy
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/karadzic/atrocities/omarska.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1634250.stm
http://www.e-novine.com/drustvo/39700-Omarska-spomenik-divljatvu-otporu.html
Omarska, August 6th 2009 (photo cafe.prijedor.ba)
(Trnopolje, augustus 1992)
In zijn column ‘Moeten linkse media zich niet schamen’ (Elsevier, 28 januari 2011) voelt dhr. Afshin Elian de linkse media aan de tand en stelt onder andere: ’Het is verbazingwekkend hoe snel en zonder enig onderzoek sommige Europese journalisten, vooral de Nederlandse linkse media, deze documenten (geheime diplomatieke documenten, opm. S.M.) als waarheid hebben aangenomen’. Ook stelt hij:’ De wereld moet uitkijken dat zij niet wordt gebombardeerd door allerlei valse en gefabriceerde documenten.’ En, om zijn betoog met voorbeelden uit het verleden te staven, springt hij in dezelfde valkuil en schrijft: ‘In de jaren negentig bestond er een foto van een gevangene in een Servisch kamp (cursief toegevoegd) die ons deed denken aan de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Pas later, na de Balkanoorlog, bleek dat deze foto vals was. De zogenaamde gevangene stond aan de andere kant van de prikkeldraad. Maar de foto was het legitimerende symbool om alle Servische strijders als monsters te zien.’
Het verhaal van die ‘ene’ foto uit Bosnie is inderdaad in de jaren negentig het onderwerp van discussie geweest. Alleen is dhr. Elian ‘vergeten’ het verhaal te checken voordat hij het als argument gebruikt en rept slechts over een foto van een man in een kamp. Dit noemen we in het Nederlands: Ergens de klok horen luiden…! En juist omdat het gebruikt werd in een stuk dat precies dat verschijnsel poogt te bekritiseren door een prominente hoogleraar, is dit met een woord: onacceptabel!
Die ‘ene foto van een man in een kamp’ is de foto van de broodmagere Fikret Alic in het kamp Trnopolje. Trnopolje bevindt zich in de gemeente Prijedor in Noord Bosnie waar nog twee andere grote concentratiekampen bestonden, namelijk Omarska en Keraterm. In Prijedor zijn in 1992 ruim 3200 burgers omgebracht waarvan meer dan duizend nog steeds vermist zijn. Prijedor telt 63 massagraven. In de grootste, ontdekt in 2004 in Stari Kevljani op steenworp afstand van het kamp Omarska, lagen de resten van 456 burgers. Voor de oorlog, in 1991 telde Prijedor 42% Serviers. In 1993 sprong dit percentage naar 98%. De niet-Serviers die niet in de kampen werden opgesloten of meteen vermoord werden (soms in eigen huis), konden in juni 1992 (net als de Joden in nazi-Duitsland) slechts herkenbaar de straat op, namelijk met een wit touwtje om de arm. Het zal dan ook niet verbazen dat het Joegoslavie Tribunaal in Den Haag in een tussenvonnis in de zaak Milosevic in juni 2004 concludeerde dat er genoeg aanwijzingen zijn dat, naast Srebrenica, genocide is gepleegd in 6 andere gemeentes in Bosnie waaronder Prijedor. De toenmalige leider van Bosnische Serviers, Karadzic staat thans in Den Haag terecht wegens genocide in 10 gemeentes in Bosnie (wederom. o.a. in Prijedor). Er zijn inmiddels meer dan 30 personen veroordeeld wegens oorlogsmisdaden in Prijedor en de drie bovengenoemde kampen, inclusief in Trnopolje (die ‘een columnist’ Elian, gemakshalve ‘een kamp’ noemt). In de kampen werden honderden burgers (ook vrouwen en kinderen) gedood, gemarteld en verkracht.
(massagraf bij Trnopolje met de resten van zes personen, ontdekt op 13 oktober 2010)
Samenvattend, de bewuste foto heeft al in augustus 1992 blootgelegd wat zich afspeelde voor de ogen van de wereld en Europa dat ooit volmondig zei: ’dit nooit meer’. In haar boek ‘Het probleem uit de hel’ schrijft Samantha Power dat de CIA al in juni 1992 op de hoogte was van massamoorden in Bosnie, ethnische zuiveringen (eufemisme voor genocide) en het bestaan van de kampen. Zij ontdekte onder andere dat twee hoge functionarissen van de CIA ontslag hebben genomen wegens de afzijdige houding van hun regering. Het waren juist de Britse journalisten Penny Marshal en Ed Vulliamy die met hun berichtgeving en de beelden van Trnopolje en Omarska voor elkaar hebben gekregen dat de kampen Keraterm (gesloten op dezelfde dag dat de beelden zijn gemaakt, 5 augustus 1992), Omarska (gesloten op 22 augustus 1992) en Trnopolje (gesloten in oktober 1992) het symbool zouden worden van de massamoorden in Bosnie die pas zouden eindigen met genocide in Srebrenica in 1995.
Wat dhr. Elian kennelijk niet weet of niet wil weten, is dat het verhaal van Fikret Alic, meerdere malen ook in Nederland op televisie is geweest (Netwerk en BNN op reis). Alic legt onder andere uit dat hij gevangen zat en gemarteld werd. Voorts bleek dat enkele jongens die het aandurfden met hem naar prikkeldraad te lopen diezelfde nacht gedood zijn. Ook naar hem werd gezocht, waardoor hij besloot op een konvooi te stappen waarmee hij, vermomd in vrouwenkleren, met vrouwen en kinderen gedeporteerd werd uit de regio. Evenmin blijkt Elian te weten dat het Britse blad Living Marxism (‘de linkse media'), dat als eerste stelde dat de bewuste foto nep was, wegens smaad door de rechter is veroordeeld tot een schadevergoeding van 750.000 pounds. Nog een paar jaar geleden probeerde ook de bekende Nederlandse filmmaker Peter Tetteroo te spelen met dit onderwerp en noemde in NRC Next deze foto in het rijtje van de grootste 10 journalistieke leugens ooit. Tetteroo was overigens mans genoeg om kort daarop zijn miser te erkennen in het programma ‘De leugen regeert’.
Het bijzondere aan dit verhaal is ten slotte dat het inmiddels vrijwel iedereen duidelijk is wat zich in de regio Prijedor en Bosnie heeft afgespeeld tussen 1992 en 1995. Zelfs in de hoofdstad van Servie, Belgrado bestaan initiatieven om in ieder geval het beruchte kamp Omarska te herdenken door een herdenkingscentrum te openen.
(foto van N. Jakupovic, gemaakt door dr. I. Merdzanic in Trnopolje, juli 1992 + link naar het getuigenis van Merdzanic voor het Joegoeslavie Tribunaal)
In Nederland daarentegen blijft het fabeltje van de ‘nepfoto’ hardnekkig bestaan ondanks alles wat ondertussen over de kampen bekend is geworden. Als overlevende van Omarska, maar ook als Nederlander en als mens blijft het mij verbazen dat het niet alleen gaat om anonieme personen die om hun moverende redenen het gerucht over de foto op internet blijven verspreiden, maar ook dat prominente, bekende Nederlanders zich zelf openlijk blameren, enkel omdat ze de moeite niet willen nemen achter de feiten aan te gaan. Ook ik ben in die zwartste dagen van mijn leven geinterviewd (Omarska, 9 augustus 1992) en gedwongen voor de camera te liegen dat de plek waar ik als twintigjarige met duizenden anderen maanden lang zat opgesloten, geen concentratiekamp was.
Juist door die beelden van Alic en het sluiten van de kampen kort daarna, leef ik vandaag en honderden anderen die de honger en martelingen tot aan 5 augustus ter nauwe nood wisten te overleven. DAT is wat de bewuste foto heeft veroorzaakt en zeker niet dat alle Servische strijders monsters waren zoals Elian met bijzonder gemak en generaliserend durft te concluderen.
Het is triest en schokkend dat dhr. Elian zulke mensenrechtenschendingen in Bosnie negeert en met een pennestreek in feite ontkent. Ik hoop wel dat hij omwille van de waarheid en uit respect voor honderden omgebrachte burgers uit Prijedor, zijn woorden over de beelden uit Trnopolje terug zal nemen.
(reactie gemaild aan de Volkskrant en Elsevier, niet gepubliceerd)
http://srebrenica-genocide.blogspot.com/2008/08/concentration-camps-in-bosnia.html
de foto's 1, 2, 4, 5 en 6 zijn gemaakt in Trnopolje in 1992 (zie link)
(Fikret Alic in 2007. foto gemaakt door Borut Petrlin)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB6a-iD6ZOY
How to graft a human
The grafting of a human is a complex and long-lasting process which one must approach with great care and only after long preparation. If in the course of the grafting process, which generally lasts many years, one makes a mistake, in most cases the graft does not succeed. The human generally dies, through self-destruction or withering. Cases of premature breaking of stunted branches are known, whereupon one can only cut the branch in order not to disturb the development of other humans. Sometimes, for example in cases where the trunk of the person was too young, the grafting will not succeed. In this case the person continues to live in his original form, and carries the grafted part in himself in a way that goes unnoticed by himself and those around him. The grafted part and the trunk become one, but neither externally nor internally is this noticed by the naked eye. For that reason, in science such a person is not termed a graft, but a cosmopolitan.
A cosmopolitan also may arise after the grafting of an adult specimen, but in that case the graft does not succeed, not because of the youth of the person but, most often, because of the lack of connection with the soil and surroundings in which he lived. Essentially, in such cases it can be said that the person has not been grafted, but only transported from one environment to another, and assimilated into the orchard in which he continues his life. Such assimilation of a person is most successful in settings that are far from the native soil in which the person first drew breath on this planet. Such places must by their ordering, their economic and social conditions, and life tempo fitting for the development of a large number of specimens of the same type. With plants, such an environment is most often a greenhouse, but with persons one above all thinks of lands such as
It is best to graft a human between the fifteenth and fortieth year of his life. Certainly, grafting may succeed with younger or older subjects, but it is not recommended because the possibility for a good, healthy graft decreases geometrically with each year of difference in age.
As emphasized above, grafting must be carried out on a human who has set down strong roots in the land where he came into this world.
If possible, it is best to take for a subject a human born in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There, for reasons not known even to them, and not scientifically explained, there is an exaggerated, primordial love for their surroundings and the people with whom they live in that “backwater.”
Approaching the sacred act
Upon entering into the sacred act of grafting a human, that is, cutting the trunk and implanting/transplanting a new one, one must not forget several crucial preconditions for successful development of the graft. Here we will mention just two most important ones:
a) It is very critical to cut and graft a large number of samples, and to chop down a great number of the remainder completely; that is, to systematically wipe them out. Since a human is not a tree, but a conscious being, the specimen, or many of them, must be reconciled from the start with the fact that the original habitat has been reduced to ashes. With this, the process of reception of the graft will have more chance for success. The removal of the rest of the orchard is necessary both to further acceptance of the graft and to cause loss of desire for return on the part of the subject. In science and in society, since the last decade of the twentieth century, this practice is called “ethnic cleansing”. In some exceptional cases, such as in Srebrenica and in six other municipalities in
b) It is best to begin the grafting process in what is, for the subject, a relatively difficult way, for example, with torture, extensive imprisonment in camps, rape, and similar things. In these ways the desire for life builds in the subject, by his very human nature, in the course of the grafting. The drive for survival will thus not only save the life of the individual, but will also strengthen and ultimately construct the grafted part of the person.
Grafting must be done quickly and precisely, without mercy and contemplation. As a good example here we can introduce a process similar to the grafting of a person, and that is “butchering a person”. With butchering, the result and the process are, of course, different. One must place the human on his knees, lean over him, and pull him by the hair. With one fast, decisive stroke of the knife, disregarding begging, questions, crying, mention of children, calling upon years of friendship and similar, mostly irrelevant things, one must make a long cut in the area of the throat. The person can then be thrown on the ground or gently lowered; this is not of great significance for the result. One may at times kick the lifeless head, so that the blood will flow out more quickly, although this move is more a subjective matter for the practitioner. The knife, of course, must be wiped, at least on one’s pants, because of the danger of infecting another person awaiting. Thus, as opposed to butchering, where grafting a person is concerned, the person is only spiritually slaughtered, as the body must stay alive.
The most important precondition for a successful graft is that the cut into the spirit must be decisive and merciless. The slogan goes, “Cut and enter freely”. After the incision into the spirit (say, in a concentration camp), the subjects are in the greatest possible number forced into another setting where they continue their lives, apparently in the same form. Better put, the subjects in their new environment do not even notice that they have been spiritually slaughtered and that a new, healthy graft has been attached to them, of a different color, taste, and smell.
Further development
“Here I am in
For the further development of the graft it is most important that the new location in which the human continues his life receives the individual and guarantees the most important conditions for his existence. Along with the aforementioned natural drive for survival, the person will of his own accord begin to set down roots in the new surroundings and thus, not even noticing the new, grafted branches, water his own trunk. This process requires many years, and in the modern world it is called “integration”. Parallel with the development of the graft, the process of integration often leads to the healing of certain side effects of grafting, the most well known of which is the post-traumatic stress syndrome. Through education, workplace relations, acquisition of a new language, and the creation of a family, the human can, after grafting, adapt to the new environment. And thus he can, without compulsion, spontaneously and without undue consideration, complete the process of grafting, which he had resisted at first.
With the successful graft, the subject will pass through life, build and create, meet people who will not be aware that on that strong young green apple trunk there grew fine, juicy yellow pears.
In the new environment, people who meet him every day will have no idea that those pears are the fruit of a graft, but will speak of one more successful immigrant.
For the environment from which he came, the human will remain a foreigner, a refugee, a traitor, a stranger, for the rest of his life. In a word, he will be “diaspora”, for whom, in the best case, one will coldly and mercilessly say, “What does he want, he did well”.
Result
In the Bosnian tradition, grafting of fruit trees is a good deed; however, because of the considerable number of negative results in practice to date, grafting of persons is not recommended! A human is, after all, not a tree. Not even the world’s finest pear tree will ever produce high-quality apple cider, even if it is pressed from those small fruits of the stunted savages from the ravines of
(translation in English by Peter Lippman)
"Ik ben 'the image' van Bosnie. Heb m'n been verloren in het Bosnisch leger, ben getrouwd met een Servische en haal m'n voedsel bij Caritas" - antwoord van een Sarajevoer op de enquette vraag op straat: "Wat is 'the image' van Bosnie?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzDDJm27vmc
In deze stad is het toegestaan zowel links als rechts in te halen. Zebrapad dient enkel om te weten waar de voetgangers eventueel kunnen verschijnen, niet om ze ook over te laten steken voordat alle voertuigen erlangs hebben geraasd. Als je, achter het stuur durft in te dutten met een mooi stukje muziek tussen je oren, na een halve sevonde hoor je getoeter achter je, meteen gevolgd door tenminste drie andere nerveuze 'muziekanten'. Op een rotonde heeft niemand voorrang. Op een kruispunt de voorrang heeft de vrachtauto. Achteruitkijkspiegel dient voor het checken van de make up bij de vrouwen-chauffeurs (contradictio in termini). Bij mannen is het nutteloos. Motorrijders razen voorbij, soms zonder een helm. Het lijkt erop alsof ze zich zelf cool vinden, maar ze lijken eerder op rijdende lijken; het overlijdensbericht in de krant van morgen. Politie houdt aan wie ze kunnen aanhouden, niet wie ze zouden moeten. Er bestaan voertuigen die je alleen aan de hand van kenteken kan definieren als zijnde een voertuig. Voetgangers vloeken richting de chauffeurs terwijl ze oversteken, denkend dat het niet hoorbaar is wat ze zeggen. Kleine Roma kinderen staan tussen de rijbanen op de kruispunten en besmeuren de voorruiten met zwart water. Daarna verwachten ze geld, ongeacht of je om een wasbeurt hebt gevraagd. De stad is constant vol auto's, de file in de sniper alley is een deel van de panorama geworden. Toch klaagt iedereen over de crisis. In de winter vertraagt het beeld zoals het beeld in herhaling van een doelpunt op tv. Autowasserijen staan werkelijk overal en zijn altijd bezet. Een vaker gebruikt woord voor de auto, ook op de radio, is 'uw lieverd'. Op de reclameborden voor de auto staan altijd half blote vrouwen.
Een paar dagen terug besloot ik gewoon weer 's een stukje te lopen...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qyvz4tmEls&feature=related
Lees een geweldig boek (meerdere eigenlijk...), ook in het Engels verkrijgbaar:" Lazarus project", van Aleksandar Hemon. Doen! :)
Last week the body of Muhamed Nuhanović was identified whose post-mortem remains had been exhumated from the mass grave site in Kamenica. The identification was confirmed by his brother Hasan who that same day wrote the letter being published by Dani.
Written by: Hasan Nuhanović (translation P. Lippman)
LETTER FROM SREBRENICA
Today I identified my brother by his tennis shoes.
In the fall they got in touch with me about my mother. They found her, or what was left of her, in a creek, in the
Last fall, also, I went to court to see Predrag “Czar” Bastah. A Serb in Vlasenica told me -- I gave him a hundred marks -- that Czar had poured gas on them and lit them on fire. When I saw him in the courtroom, they were trying him for slaughtering people in ’92, there was nothing for me to see. Just some stunted piece of trash. Probably he waited all his life for his chance to be “somebody” for five minutes. And he got his chance in ’92. After that there were no more Muslims around to slaughter until Srebrenica fell. He waited more than two more years and then my mother and a few others fell into his hands. His commander, who ordered the killings, now works here in
I’m preparing to bury them this year next to my father. They identified my father four years ago, eleven years after his execution. They found a little more than half his bones, they say. His skull smashed from behind. The doctor couldn’t tell me whether that happened after he died. They found him in a secondary mass grave, Cancari. Kamenica near Zvornik. There are thirteen mass grave sites there. The Chetniks dug them up with bulldozers from the primary grave at Pilica, the Branjevo farm, a little before the time of
There were around 1500 of them killed there. That’s what they say at the Tribunal. I read the statement of one of the murderers who says, “I couldn’t shoot anymore, my index finger was starting to get numb from so much killing. I was killing them for hours.” Someone, he says, had promised them five marks for each Muslim that they kill that day. And he says that they made the bus drivers get out and kill at least a few of the Muslims so that they wouldn’t talk about this to anyone later.
Oh yes, poor drivers. Poor Drazen Erdemovic, who says that he had to kill or he would be killed. They all had to do it, you see, and only Mladic is guilty because, they say, he ordered it all. And when they catch Mladic, some day, he’ll say, like a real Serb hero, “I am taking the responsibility for all Serbs and for the whole Serb nation. Only I am guilty, judge me and let everyone else go.” And then all of us, we and the Serbs and the rest of them, we’ll be satisfied and happy. We’ll rip off our clothes and jump into bed together. We will no longer need the foreigners for anything.
Last year they put up headstones for everyone, nice ones, white in color, all the same, lined up in rows. Two empty spaces by my father. He’s waiting three years for my mother and his son, Muhamed, for them to be laid next to him.
Then they told me about my mother. I was preparing to bury her by my father this July 11th, 2010.
And then the other day they called me on the phone -- they said they had a DNA identification for my brother, but they weren’t a hundred percent sure. They said to come to
2
In the spring of ’95, I bought my brother new tennis shoes, Adidas, from some foreigner. He brought them from
And today the doctor showed me a photograph -- the clothes. He said, there isn’t much, very little, but there are tennis shoes. When he put the picture on the table in front of me, I looked at the sneakers, my brother’s Adidas, as if he had just taken them off the other day. They weren’t even untied.
The doctor brings in a bag and shakes out everything that they found on his remains into a box in front of me. And after waiting for fifteen years I take my brother’s sneakers in my hands. And besides that a belt, with a big metal buckle, and what’s left of his
I looked for that well-known slogan on the
Some other tag hangs untouched, just a little dirty, stuck in those threads, in the strands, the fragments.
I read it, looking for the
All day I see that “Made in
3
A Dutch soldier, then, a little younger, came up to me and offered me a beer and a Marlboro. I shook my head. He just shrugged and walked away.
And for fifteen years I, like all the rest, prayed to God that when we finally find out what happened, it will be that they didn’t suffer long, that they didn’t die in torment.
They have been dead for fifteen years. In that year some new children were born. And now those children are fifteen years old. This July 11th will be someone’s fifteenth birthday.
I will never do anything, in any way, that would endanger those children’s future. I would not even think of that. May God grant that this will never happen to anyone again.
But, there is no amnesty, my friend. For the guilty there is no amnesty.
4
The reporters ask me all the time, and again the other day: what is my message for future generations. I tell them about how after
I drove by the places where Serbs live -- I look at them through the window and think, which of them is a murderer? Which of them is a murderer?
It was like that for years. For years. And then, one day, by the road on a meadow where I had heard that a mass grave was concealed, a little girl was playing. She was five or six. Just like my daughter. I knew those were Serb houses.
The little girl ran across the meadow. And everything mixed together in me -- sorrow, and pain, and hate.
And then I think, that poor little girl, what is she guilty of? She doesn’t even know what lies under that meadow, under the flowers. I’m sorry for that girl who looked just like my daughter. They could be playing together on that meadow.
And I wish that that little girl and my daughter will never experience what we lived through. Never. They deserve a nicer future. That’s what I said to those journalists. Those last ones were from in
And so, Dr. Kesetovic confirms -- the mortal remains of my brother will be prepared for the funeral on July 11th. It is just as if my brother had managed to check in at the last minute, in time to be buried together with my mother, beside my father who lies waiting for them in Potocari.
And so my father, murdered in Pilica and exhumed in Kamenica, my brother, murdered in Pilica and exhumed in Kamenica, and my mother, murdered in Vlasenica and exhumed from under the garbage the creek at Jarovlje, will finally rest beside each other in Potocari.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmNBXYg8UX4
Rivier Drina, Oost Bosnië
Sarajevo bloeit weer. Pas nu het weer eindelijk zacht is, de zon steeds vaker schijnt en de natuur begint te bloeien, besef ik hoe donker, koud en heftig de afgelopen winter in Sarajevo was. Er zijn steeds meer buitenlanders in de stad. Engels, Zweeds, Turks, Russisch, Spaans zijn de talen die ik gisteren in Ferhadija straat opving. Ieder weekend is er weer een concert, iedere week is weer een andere bekende politicus in de stad (deze week Emine Bozkurt), of (ook deze week) de Amerikaanse filmsterren, Brad Pitt en Angelina Jolie.
Ferhadija straat, Sarajevo
Was woensdag avond bij de presentatie van Roy Gutman, de Amerikaanse journalist die in de zomer 1992 persoonlijk verantwoordelijk was voor het ontdekken van 'death camps' in Noord Bosnië. Na vele krantenartikelen in Newsday en gebel met New York, Washington, Parijs, Geneve, 'besloot men' dat er in Bosnië inderdaad kampen bestaan die 50 jaar na de holocaust misschien toch niet door de beugel kunnen. En ontruimd werd er, eerst Keraterm op 5 augustus (182 doden in één nacht in juli 1992), dan Omarska op 22 augustus (900-1000 doden in 3 maanden) en vervolgens Trnopolje (Westerbork van Bosnië, het kamp waaruit duizenden niet-Serviërs werden gedeporteerd uit Prijedor regio) in oktober. Gutman kreeg Pulitzer prijs in 1993, schreef een boek (Witness to genocide) en werd op 6 april 2010 ereburger van Sarajevo wegens zijn rol in het bekendmaken van de ware omvang van misdaden onder leiding van Karadzic, vandaag achter de tralies in Scheveningen. Had twee keer de kans met Gutmann kort te spreken, bedankte hem gisteren avond persoonlijk voor wat hij heeft gedaan en onderstreepte dat hij tientallen, misschien honderden mensenlevens heeft gered. Want deze bescheiden man heeft het tijdens zijn presentatie zelf niet gezegd.
Roy Gutman, Sarajevo 7 april 2010
Kamp Omarska, 5 augustus 1992
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-wMYfw18Qw
Ben eindelijk echt gewend aan het leven hier. Heb het naar m'n zin, het project loopt goed (hoewel ontzettend intensief en soms zwaar) en ik blijf positief en optimistisch ondanks vele pesimisten die dit land rijk is.
Had gisteren geluncht en goed gesprek gehad met oud-collega Monique en haar nieuwe collega Henk, Nederlanders die hier ook vertoeven. Vandaag zijn ze met een grote groep naar Srebrenica vertrokken. Wil ik een keertje ook doen, maar heb vandaag gekozen om thuis te blijven.
Rafting op Una, Noord West Bosnië
Wilde overigens een andere tekst vandaag hier plaatsen, "Bosnië, het land van blauwogige moslims", maar kreeg na het lezen, kribbels van zo vele vooroordelen en onwaarheden over dit land en de Bosnische oorlog dat ik het maar niet doe. Niet dat moslims in dit land geen blauwe ogen hebben, maar omdat de oorlog in de jaren '90 echt géén 'godsdienstige oorlog' was, maar landjepik, drang naar macht, hebzucht, genocide... Dat er na 11 september 2001 een nieuwe wereldorde is ontstaan, dat we het nu kennelijk nodig vinden elkaar als moslim/christen/jood/soeniet/protestant/sikh... te zien, te bestempelen en vooral te beoordelen, betekent nog steeds niet dat de oorlog die tussen1991 en 1995 in ex-Joegoslavië plaatsvond om de godsdienst ging en zeker niet om een botsing tussen islam en christendom. Waarom waren het anders eerst in 1991 de Kroaten (katholiek) de pineut toen Serviërs (christelijk othodox) huishielden in Kroatië en vervolgens in 1995 precies andersom? Honderdduizenden vluchtelingen, verwoeste steden zoals Vukovar, tientallen duizenden doden, vaak burgers, allemaal christenen tegen christenen... Anyway, ik merk dat we (men, mensen) zo snel neigen om te generaliseren, het leven lekker willen versimpelen zodat een ieder in allerlei makkelijke hokjes past die we zelf creeren of die voor ons gecreeerd worden. Zo redenerend kom je langzaam aan tot de ontdekking dat Karadzic niet eens verkeerd bezig was...
Hoorde gisteren ook dat men 'het zeker weet' dat er veel minder slachtoffers zijn in Srebrenica dan 'de moslims zeggen'...(dat zei ook een bekende politicus en vroeg om een nieuw onderzoek. Het zijn er (volgens officiële cijfers) 8372 en dat zijn er precies 8372 vermoorde burgers te veel. Als we één tiende hiervan aan daders zouden berechten (meer dan duizend mensen waren betrokken volgens de Servische bronnen), mag het getal slachtoffers wat mij betreft ook naar beneden...ben alleen benieuwd wie welke naam zal schrappen van de lijst?
(Memorial in Potocari, Srebrenica)
Het is het verkiezingsjaar in Bosnië Herzegovina en dat voel je steeds beter. Het populisme en goedkope retoriek floreren iedere dag. Het goede nieuws is dat er ook alternatieven zijn voor de zittende machthebbers die het land langzaam aan tot stilstand hebben gebracht en steeds vaker het nationalisme aangrijpen om zich zelf te positioneren. Mensen bang maken 'voor die anderen' om vervolgens zich zelf op te werpen als 'leider van de onderdrukte natie' heeft hier kennelijk altijd gewerkt...gelukkig leven we niet 20 jaar geleden en laat niet iedereen zich zo gek maken.
Ben dus zeker niet de enige die vrienden heeft van alle kleuren en religies... ondanks alles :)
Nog een beetje muziek voor de liefhebbers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReWv6xn17Gs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXqmAJslfUQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrpkrITwSCU
Lesje Bosnisch:
Behar - Bloessem
Geen zin en nauwelijks tijd om te schrijven.
Daarom, voor deze keer een documentaire over Kozarac anno 2008 met foto's uit de periode 1992-2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw1RuRHq418
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_gxOIGQWRk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTuCtMOnGkg&feature=related
Kozarac, Noord Westen van Bosnië Herzegovina, 2008
Oude fort in Kozarac
24 mei 1992, de aanval op Kozarac
Kozarac, 1998
Oorlogsbegraafplaats in Kozarac (1820 doden en vermisten uit de Bosnische oorlog)
2007, niet iedereen is blij met de terugkeer en wederopbouw
Sportveld en de sportzaal gerenoveerd in 2005, resp. 2008, mede met Nederlands geld
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Zwembad in Kozarac 2006
Had even geen zin en geen tijd om te schrijven. Beter gezegd, meestal geen tijd en als ik een beetje tijd had... geen zin :)
Geniet van het weekend en de rust. Heb ik hard nodig. Het leven is op momenten zo intensief dat ik het tempo dat ik meestal 'makkelijk aankon' gewoon moet bijstellen. Misschien komt het doordat het project in deze eerste weken veel meer vergt dan als alles eenmaal op poten staat.
De volgende week is de officiele opening van het project en vanaf morgen zal ik weer Nederlandse collega's zien. Eerst Monique die morgen landt en net als ik de gastarbeider in Sarajevo zal worden. Met haar heb ik veel samengewerkt en gereisd de afgelopen jaren en het komende jaar worden we bijna buren... het kan verkeren :). Vanaf dinsdag verwelkom ik in 2 stappen de Nederlandse delegatie die voor de opening van het project komt. Heb gisteren door de stad geslenterd om een goede rondleiding te vooorbereiden voor ze. Denk dat het goed zal lukken, hoewel ik zelf m'n kennis over Sarajevo moet bijspijkeren.
Heb gisteren voor het eerst hardgelopen, zonnebank en massage (3e keer) genomen. Doet wonderen... :)
Veel nare nieuws deze dagen... eerst werd eergisteren het lichaam van een man gevonden in Miljacka onder één van de bruggen in Sarajevo en dezelfde dag werd bekend dat een jonge Australische avonturier (22) van de brug in Mostar is gesprongen en niet meer boven kwam. De rivier Neretva is deze dagen veel te gevarlijk en koud, maar hij negeerde de waarschuwingen van de voorbijgangers... Zonde van het leven...
Oude brug in Mostar (de hoofdstad van Herzegovina), 130 km ten zuiden van Sarajevo
Morgen is de Onafhankelijkheidsdag in Bosnië Herzegovina. 18 jaar geleden heeft 64% van de inwoners van dit land tijdens een referendum (op advies/verzoek van de VS en de EG om het eerdere besluit van de regering te bekrachtigen met een referendum) gekozen voor onafhankelijkheid dat kort daarop (7 apil 1992) zal resulteren in erkenning van Bosnië Herzegovina door de EG, VS, Rusland en veel andere landen. Op 15 mei 1992 volgde het lidmaatschap van de VN. Het was echter te laat om ook vrede af te dwingen. Sarajevo was al omsingeld en op 5 april beschoten. De eerste slachtoffers, twee jonge vrouwen, zijn tijdens een vredesdemonstraties, gedood door de sluipschutters van toenmalig Bosnisch Servische leider Karadzic (huidige verblijfplaats -een cel in Scheveningen). Het 'leuke' die dag was dat de moordenars (de meesten stonden opgesteld op het dak van Holiday In hotel, zie eerste foto op de blog) gearresteerd zijn door de speciale eenheden van de politie onder leiding van een Bosnische Serviër, één van de oorlogshelden van deze stad.
Huidige vlag van Bosnië Herzegovina
De Vlag van Bosnië Herzegovina tussen 1878 en 1908 (aparte status onder Oosterijk - Hongaarse Rijk met een eigen parlement en regering). Zie voor andere vlaggen tussen 12e eeuw (toen het land voor het eerst een eigen vorst had; Ban Boric v.a.1154) en heden.
Het is eindelijk niet zo koud en gisteren was de eerste echte zonnige, voorjaarsdag dit jaar (niet gerekend de dag, 10 dagen terug, dat vanwege 'de mist' m'n vlucht naar huis werd gecancelled, maar daarover de volgende keer... :)).
Nog 2 links voor muziek; nummers van twee, getalenteerde zangers, Marco Borsato's van Bosnië :)
het eerste is splinternieuw:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipHEJkv0oL8
de andere één van de eerdere inzendingen van Bosnië voor Eurovisie Songfestival (de morele winnar in 2006 volgens sommigen...):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQPqUCtM2KM&feature=related
Lesje Bosnisch:
"Dva svijeta - Twee werelden"
adios ;)
De stad ademt vandaag een frisse ochtend lucht, gemengd met de constant aanwezige smog. En wederom gebukt onder een nieuwe pak sneeuw dat vanacht in no-time alles een nieuwe, oude witte kleur heeft gegeven.
Naarmate ik hier langer rondloop. ben ik steeds meer een 'insider' aan het worden. Steeds meer mensen, bekenden en volkomen onbekenden, laten blijken wat zich hier zoal afspeelt, verborgen voor een vreemdeling of iemand die Bosnië met een kort bezoek verrrast. Veel Sarajevoërs leven op de armoede grens en dromen van een goed leven in het buitenland. Sommigen kunnen zich ook moeilijk voorstellen dat ik het zo fijn vond om juist hier een tijdje te leven. Het gras is altijd groener elders. Wat ook meespeelt bij de gedachte om bijvoorbeeld naar Canada te verkassen is de omstandigheid dat de werkloosheid al jaren heel hoog is en veel jonge, gemotiveerde en geschoolde mensen dagen lang internet en kranten doorkruisen op zoek naar een baan. Bovendien is de visumplicht voor de EU (dat waarschijnlijk later dit jaar na 18 jaar zal worden opgeheven), een extra obstakel voor veel mensen om koffers te pakken, al is het maar voor een bezoek aan familie of vrienden elders in Europa.
Sarajevo is een stad van tegenstellingen, althans dat gevoel krijg ik steeds meer. In de Marshalk Tito straat kan je naast elkaar gesluierde meisjes en modern geklede jonge vrouwen zien lopen. In de oude stad, Bascarsija, tref je veel zakenlieden in de beste maatpakken een Mark munt (gelijk aan inmiddels verdwenen Duitse Mark) uitdelen aan de oude vrouwen of kleine, schaars geklede bedelende Roma-kinderen. Uit de Alipashina moskee, pal naast een bekende diskotheek, Club, lopen iedere dag en avond tientallen mannen naar buiten na het gebed. Ook het weer slaat in 24 uur om van zeer koud met winterse sneeuwbuien, tot voorjaars zonnig en aangenaam zacht.
De economische crisis is ook hier allang voelbaar (kortingen overal van 50% tot 70%), ook al zeggen sommige Bosniërs dat dat niet waar is, 'omdat in Bosnië economische crisis nimmer is opgehouden, m'n vriend. Crisis is Bosnië is de enige constante sinds de oorlog..."
De lokale media zijn in een ware 'mediaoorlog' verwikkeld wegens verschillende ontwikkelingen waaronder het aannemen van een wet over referendum in Republika Srpska dat volgens sommigen een nieuwe, 'legale', manier gaat worden om het land alsnog op te delen. Voorlasnog zijn vele politici en columnisten het erover eens dat dit slechts een nieuwe stunt is van de PM van Srpska, Dodik, om aandacht af te wenden van zijn persoonlijke issues (verdenking van verduistering van meer dan 100 miljoen Mark dat sinds vorig jaar onderzocht wordt door de Bosnische Openbare Aanklager) en een aanloop naar de verkiezingscampagne. Verder is er, aan deze, andere kant van de onzichtbare binnengrens in Bosnië, met name in Sarajevo een grote discussie ontstaan over de politieke aspiraties van de waarschijnlijk rijkste en meest invloedrijke Bosniër op dit moment, de eigenaar van enkele hotels en de krant Avaz (de Bosnische Telegraaf).
Taxichauffeurs blijken de ware bloedbaan van de stad te zijn. Hoe meer ik er spreek, hoe meer ik te weten kom over de meest bizare gebeurtenissen. Zij vertegenwoordignen in ieder geval een unieke doelgroep dat me heel erg bevalt, namelijk harde werkers met veel betrokkenheid voor de ontwikkelingen in de maatschappij. Verrassend veel mensen vertoeven namelijk voor de tv zappend van de ene Spaanse soap naar de andere, inmiddels afgewisseld met beelden van de Olympische Spelen in Vancouver (ik neem aan om de ellende van de buitenwereld van zich af te wenden).
Hoe moelijk het leven voor vele Bosniërs ook is (onegacht hun ethnische afkomst), ik heb het gevoel dat dit land stukje bij beetje, toch de goede kant op gaat. Hier zijn 2 redenen voor, namelijk de (voelbare) afname van het nationalisme binnen de verschillende groepen en een groot aantal, slimme, goed opgeleide, toekomst gerichte jonge mensen die op enig moment het stuur zullen overnemen en het land in een rustiger vaarwater leiden.
Subjectief of niet, een optimist ben ik altijd geweest. :)
Dum spiro spero (Zolang ik adem, hoop ik.); deze keer geen lesje Bosnisch, maar Latijn ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_yqXbnqX9U&feature=related
(een leuk liedje van één van de meest bekende Bosnische zangers, Dino Merlin... sommige van deze trams uit Amsterdam, rijden nu in Sarajevo... niet alleen ik ben hierheen verhuisd :))
Vijecnica, Nationale Bibliotheek, één van de mooiste gebouwen van Sarajevo
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalbibliothek_Bosnien_und_Herzegowina
Bosnische Stećak (middeleeuwse graftombe) - zie ook:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ste%C4%87ci
Selimovic about Bosnians:
`We are no one's, always at a boundary, always someone’s dowry. Is it a wonder then that we are poor? For centuries now we have been seeking our true selves, yet soon we will not know who we are, we will forget that we ever wanted anything; others do us the honour of calling us under their banner for we have none, they lure us when we are needed and discard us when we have outserved the purpose they gave us. We remain the saddest little district of the world, the most miserable people of the world, losing our own persona and nor being able to take on anyone else's, torn away and not accepted, alien to all and everyone, including those with whom we are most closely related, but who will not recognise us as their kin. We live on a divide between worlds, at the border between nations, always at a fault to someone and first to be struck. Waves of history strike us as a sea cliff. Crude force has worn us out and we made a virtue out of a necessity: we grew smart out of spite.
So what are we? Fools? Miserable wretches? The most complex people in the world. No one is such a joke of history as we are. Only yesterday we were something that we now wish to forget, yet we have become nothing else. We stopped half way through, flabbergasted. There is no place we can go to any more. We are torn off, but not accepted. As a dead-end branch that streamed away from mother river has neither flow, nor confluence it can rejoin, we are too small to be a lake, too big to be sapped by the earth. With an unclear feeling of shame about our ancestry and guilt about our renegade status, we do not want to look into the past, but there is no future to look into; we therefore try to stop the time, terrified with the prospect of whatever solution might come about. Both our brethren and the newcomers despise us, and we defend ourselves with our pride and our hatred. We wanted to preserve ourselves, and that is exactly how we lost the knowledge of our identity. The greatest misery is that we grew fond of this dead end we are mired in and do not want to abandon it. But everything has a price and so does our love for what we are stuck with.
Resten van de middeleeuwse Bobovac, Centraal Bosnië - zie ook:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobovac
These are smart people; They receive a mess from the east, and a good life from the west;
They never rush because only life rushes; They are not interested in what awaits after tomorrow; What is meant to be will come, and little of it depends on them;
When they are together they are in trouble, for this they do not like to be together often;
They rarely trust anyone, but it’s easiest to fool them with nice words;
They do not resemble heroes, but they are not easily scared with threats;
They pay attention to nothing, they care not of what happens around them;
And then out of nowhere suddenly everything interests them, they flip everything and look around;
Then they become sleepers again and do not like to remember what came to pass;
They are scared of change because it often brings evil;
They are easily fed up with a man, even if he does them good;
Een beetje muziek uit de film "Nafaka"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMd_9xg57x4
Strange people;
They talk bad about you but love you, kiss you on the cheek but hate you;
Laugh at noble deeds but remember them;
They spend most of their life on spite and goodness;
And don’t know which is stronger when;
Evil, good, gentle, raw, unable to move on, stormy, open, hidden;
They are all this and everything in between;
And most importantly they are mine, and I am theirs;
And everything I’m saying; I’m saying about myself.
Nog een beetje muziek...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tgz05CD3FA&feature=related
Kad procvatu behari - Als de bloessem uitbloeit
