30 years since the war in Bosnia – Commemoration days and international conference in Sarajevo
More than 11.500 people were killed in Sarajevo alone, 1601 children among them. The city was suffering a steady campaign of terror consisting of sniper fire and shelling, which was intentionally aimed at civilians. The ICTY came to this conclusion beyond any reasonable doubt. This city, whose population count reached close to 527.000 residents in the years leading up to the war, was shelled between the years of 1992 and 1995 with approximately 500.000 grenades and projectiles, with 329 grenades per day on average and 3777 grenades on July 22nd 1993, the day of the most extensive shelling.
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| The poster for the official commemoration days shows the photograph of a man throwing flowers on his wife’s grave, since it was to dangerous to go there due to sniper fire. It’s only one of countless stories from this war one wouldn’t believe if not knowing they were true. |
International conference : 30 years later – Sarajevo
In the national library and town hall of Sarajevo, Vijećnica, an international conference was held on April 5th 2022 to commemorate the historical occasion. Large images from the siege, the legendary miss Sarajevo competition in the midst of the war, as well as pictures of the destroyed town hall (It was officially reopened in 2014) have been put up centrally. Attending the event, among others, were Munira Subašić, chairwoman of “The Mothers of Srebrenica”, the mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić, her predecessor Ivo Komšić, high representative Christian Schmidt, Serge Brammertz and Carmel Agius of ICTY / IRMCT, former UNPROFOR commander Rupert Smith, ambassador of the EU Johann Sattler, as well as the British ambassador Matthew Field.
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| The platform of the conference. In front Christian Schmidt is talking to the British ambassador Matthew Field. Both of them, however, left the event early. |
The event started off with a minute of silence for the victims of the aggression against Ukraine, to which parallels were repeatedly drawn. In her opening speech, mayor Karić spoke of Sarajevo as an antifascist city, which understands diversity as a quality and in which aggressors failed in their notion to divide ethnic groups through hate.
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| I had the honor of meeting the mayor in her office with two filmmakers. |
Thereupon, the appearance of Emir
Suljagić, genocide survivor and director of the Srebrenica-Potočari memorial site, was especially impressive. He held a profound speech, in which he declared the siege of Sarajevo as a key event and process, without which there would have been no genocide, no concentration camps in the Bosnian Krajina and no massacres committed by the HVO in central Bosnia. Many people, also from outside of Sarajevo, would be alive today if not for the siege. He acknowledged Brammertz' and Agius' work, but also reminded of the passive role of the European Union and how the former president of France, Mitterand, prevented active help for Bosnia. If the aggressors had prevailed, the defeated would have been but a footnote in history. Because of that, a day of triumph is being celebrated, since a defeat would have meant annihilation. After his speech, he left the event.
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| Emir Suljagić during his speech |
Suljagić seemingly anticipated that the perspectives expressed by several guests wouldn’t resonate with his own, probably due to earlier experiences. After all, Emir Suljagić hails from Srebrenica, where representatives of the United Nations became accessories to the genocide in their alleged safe zone. Thanks to the “Mothers of Srebrenica” and other activists this was meanwhile verified by courts of law.
Overall I perceived the event as dignified and enriching trough the many interesting perspectives offered. However, I can relate to Suljagić's apparently critical stance and want to adjoin with it in the context of some of the statements of the international guests. Dr. Ilana Bet-El, former UN-advisor, drew the picture of an UN, founded with great ambition, that was reincarnated in Bosnia after the cold war and confronted with everything it swore to prevent. The people responsible on the ground however, were presented with ambitious resolutions of the security council, on whose embodiment they did not participate and were incapable of implementing due to logistic, military and judicial barriers. There were vast differences in perception on site compared to the ones in far away headquarters. Ultimately, it was evident that particular interests of the member states, who refused to give away sovereignty, conflicted with great ideals. Bosnia was reincarnation as well as downfall of the UN, according to Bet-El. In the aftermath, it lost meaning and it’s member states would not want to trust it with an executive role in any conflict again. She summarized that the ones responsible made the most of the situation.
Bet-El’s husband, General Rupert Smith declared in his first, brief contribution, that measured against the importance of his role, he knew frighteningly little about the situation back in the day and depicted it wrong in his mind. Today he knows significantly more than before, also due to the extensive documentation assembled by the ICTY. The British Professor James Gow praised his fellow countryman as the one who did the most to liberate Sarajevo. The contribution made of the Armija BIH or any other Bosnian actor was not mentioned by him. He merely uttered criticism regarding the work of the international courts, in particular why nobody beyond Srebrenica was inticted for genocide. Mistakes made by the UN troops, that were made in Sarajevo as well as in Srebrenica, remained unmentioned, though. For example the role of the founder of the UN troops ins Sarajevo, General McKenzie, who became a pro-Serbian vehicle of propaganda trough his ignorant bothsidesim and could be one reason for those wrong depictions that Smith mentioned earlier. There wasn’t much space left for question made by the audience either. A critically important question I was about to ask, remained uncalled for by the British anchorman.
Nevertheless, survivors of the genocide of Srebrenica and Emir Softić of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments got a chance to speak. Softić said, that the residents of Sarajevo felt like living in a gigantic concentration camp during the siege, while they were waiting for hope in vain. He also brought up the question, why help didn’t come earlier and why, after the NATO intervention "Deliberate Force" in 1995, the liberation of occupied cities by the Bosnian army was prevented by the international community (by threatening the Bosnian side). He lives next to Vijećnica , where he studied architecture as a student. He mentioned that when the building was deliberately set alight from Serbian positions in 1992, he was able to read at night, so bright were the flames. Unfortunately, his questions were, by the anchorman's summary, reduced only to the part that addressed why the massacres of 1992 in Bijeljina and Eastern Bosnia haven’t already invoked an intervention. Smith's response : “one or two don’t make the same impact as hundreds”. Even if by “one or two” he means massacres counting hundreds of victims each, this is a severe understatement concerning the myriad of atrocities, that were already taking place in East Bosnia from 1992 onwards and ultimately culminated in Srebrenica. Following this, Smith voiced a very strange comparison regarding the media coverage of British traffic casualties.
Murat Tahirović, chairman of the association of the victims and witnesses of the genocide brought up the question why there were only four convictions regarding the siege of Sarajevo (Radovan Karadžić, Ratko Mladić, Stanislav
Galić und Dragomir Milošević). He especially blamed the Bosnian courts for failing to presecute more crimes. The response of Rada Pejić-Sremac of the IRMCT (succesor tribunal of the ICTY) might have been disappointing as well: She didn’t want to comment on the work of international courts, however the international institutions are offering the national ones their support, and the verdicts of the former shall be used by the latter.
A hefty sweeping blow was delivered by Kada Hotić, Mother of Srebrenica. She brought up the question why Vukovar didn’t already provoke reactions and why Bosnia (contrary to Croatia) was forbidden self-defense through an international weapons embargo, although it was the apparent intention of the greater Serbian Aggressors to obliterate the state, it’s achievements after the second world war and the Bosniaks themselves. She emphasized on the republic of Srpska being a disgrace and a reward for genocide. According to her views the international community stood by and watched how the continent was cleansed by Muslims, who were undesired in Europe. She cited the former british prime minister John Major, that wished for a christian Europe (I wasn’t able to find the original quote). She emphasized her concern over the current situation and disclosed, that Bosniaks in Srebrenica were afraid of a new outbreak of violence.
Thereafter, Munira Subašić, Chairwoman of the Mothers of Srebrenica, came forward. She stressed that the war is not to be labeled as conflict or civil war, but rather be termed as aggression and that it should have been like this from the start. The Dayton contract has divided Bosnia and is embellished at the expense of the victims and for the benefit of the perpetrators. As an example, she mentioned Srebrenica, that fell to the Republic of Srpska after the genocide. The bill against denying the genocide (which caused the current state crisis, because the Serbian representatives are boycotting and blocking federal institutions and are initiating more and more steps and threats of separation ever since) should have been introduced earlier along the lines of the prohibition of denying the Holocaust. Europe and the world are unjust towards Bosnia, she felt this in her heart and soul, when international guest came to Bosnia and superficially called for a reconciliation and a “look ahead” instead of a one in the past, without understanding the actual dynamics. She evidently perceives this as an attack to her culture of remembering: A human being without a past can not have a future, she said. She nevertheless works well together with Serbian, Croatian and Romany mothers. A reconciliation is unnecessary, the more important question is if she can forgive. Recently, a Spiegel reporter asked her this question, whereas the European representatives have never. Europe has learned nothing, she notices this among other things by fascists currently appearing in the highest institutions in rising numbers. As a woman that lost 22 members of her family to genocide, the images reaching from Ukraine rob her of her sleep. The injustice she and other Bosnians have to endure up until today is even unbeknownst to god himself.
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| I also had the chance to meet Munira Subašić, as I translated for an interview with Austrian filmmakers. Her remarks moved me greatly. |
The questions of the mothers were not answered, the anchorman called it a strong closing statement and hastily ended the panel. In summary it can be said, that the dynamics between audience and platform can be seen as an impressive example for how the reality of the Bosnians and the international observers continue to be taking place in different bubbles. Also, how the actual affected were not heard, or to say the least, their grievance was left without consequences for the most part, whereas international representatives occupy a large part of space for self profiling. The follow up consisted of two other panels about cultural, journalistic, juvenile and Jewish perspectives. What particularly stuck in my memory was a proposition by for mayor of Sarajevo, Ivo Komsic, who compared the understanding of diversity in Bosnia with the one in other European countries. He contrasted ghettoisation and assimilation with an understanding of diversity as a foundation of identity: “I’m catholic, this is my mosque, we can’t even live without this diversity.” Furthermore, a remark by historian Nihad Kreševljaković stood out, in which he mentioned the role of the german 1968 movement in discovering and processing the fascist crimes of their ancestors and how something similar is yet to occur in Bosnia.
Further questions, that I only enumerate summarizing, amongst others, included :
- To what extent deterrence is possible trough the way of media coverage and international criminal
jurisdiction
- The UN in a new conflict of systems and a false opinion of the West, that after the cold war only progress would follow
- The dysfunctional legacy of Dayton, the limitation of military interventions to establishing order (not justice nor conflict resolution)
- Humor and art as resistant practices
A recording of the complete event can be found here. I encourage my readers to at least take their time for the English subbed sections, because the ideas expressed in it can be applied to contexts beyond the Balkans without a problem. If there is interest in summarized translations of certain parts spoken in Bosnian, please contact me, I will gladly supply these.
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