FROM KONAKOVIĆ'S GATHERING TO THE SERBIAN GOVERNMENT: Is Zukorlić Jr. Vučić's Ace for an Underground Attack on Bosnia!?

By: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

At the 'all-Bosniak congress' in an attempt, organized by Elmedin Konaković, Usame Zukorlić, leader of the Party of Justice and Reconciliation, was the closest to the organizer, practically his right hand in promoting the need for his arrival, and upon arrival in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Zukorlić Jr. spoke then about how the Bosniaks of the region must unite, and only a few representatives from the region, along with NiP and NES from Bosnia and Herzegovina, listened to him. What organizers, such a gathering, one might say.

However, even before the unsuccessful gathering was held, there was a debate about the role of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in the whole story, given that he even offered to cover the organization costs. At that time, an Easter pan-Serbian congress was also scheduled (cancelled due to the resolution on Srebrenica), so many believed that the attempt by Konaković and Zukorlić was actually a way to give strong legitimacy in the name of Bosniaks to that gathering.

Today's news about the composition of the future Serbian government largely vindicates those who correlated the gathering in Sarajevo with the gathering agreed upon by Vučić, Milorad Dodik, and Patriarch Porfirije.

Because, at a time when Serbian politics, diplomacy, and their lobbyists are desperately trying to overturn the UN resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica, the worst crime against Bosniaks in the last 100 years, Zukorlić is becoming part of their politics. From this distance, although I considered that gathering to be Konaković's need for leadership, it can be said that it succeeded if we consider that Vučić approved it, and Zukorlić, as one of the key figures, entered into power with Vučić.

Participants of the failed gathering in Ilidža said they agreed on nothing, but given that they spent several hours behind locked doors 'discussing the interests of Bosniaks in the Balkans', we can rightly ask ourselves if one of those 'interests' is for Zukorlić to be part of the government with Vučić's SNS, and specifically the part without a portfolio or significance. It would be good for all participants of the meeting, especially NiP and NES, as BiH political parties where one also has the head of diplomacy, to explain to us what the interest of Bosniaks is in Zukorlić being a kind of political appendage to the Serbian government.

We would particularly need that explanation at a time when Serbia, along with Russia, is the absolute logistician of Dodik's increasingly open secession and when the Srebrenica resolution is being attacked from Belgrade in order to achieve additional interests in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

What the participants of Konaković's gathering in Ilidža should particularly clarify for us is how Zukorlić will behave in the event that Dodik officially declares secession, and Vučić politically, militarily, and diplomatically supports him with absolute power. Is Konaković's need to convene a meeting with politicians who have grown through flirting with Greater Serbian politics actually a result of the need to suppress and neutralize what were then only media reports, but today are quite visible connections with individuals and organizations outside the law, and all at the international level.

In such a space, Usame Zukorlić's politics, who is Konaković's closest political partner if we disregard SDP and NS as part of the project, is in many ways problematic for the interests of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Because, with his position under Vučić, Zukorlić neutralizes any possibility of him being part of any all-Bosniak representation. It is true that he is not the only one on the other side of the Drina, but he is the only one who responded to Konaković and played the show of concern for Bosniaks.

It would be interesting to hear the reaction of the Bosniaks from Kosovo, especially those invited later, 24 hours before the gathering, that a participant in the aforementioned attempt at an all-Bosniak political event will soon sit as a political doorman in a government that once amassed news around the borders of Kosovo.

In fact, I would also like to hear what Zukorlić thinks about Kosovo, because as a member of the government, regardless of its form, he will have to respect the Constitution of Serbia, which states: '... The Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija is an integral part of the territory of Serbia, that it has the status of essential autonomy within the sovereign state of Serbia, and that from such a status of the Province of Kosovo and Metohija follow the constitutional obligations of all state bodies to represent and protect the state interests of Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija in all internal and external political relations'.

If we remember that during the discussion about how the head of BiH diplomacy, Elmedin Konaković, will vote on May 16 regarding Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe, it is clear that anything other than voting in favor of Serbia (against or abstaining) would likely damage friendly relations with Zukorlić, because by virtue of his position, he must defend the Constitution of Serbia and the claim that Kosovo is a province of that country.

Coming to Baščaršija, taking pictures with pigeons, passers-by, and taking a walk, then having lunch in Hills is an attractive tourist experience, but to be stained by Greater Serbian political interests is a difficult-to-remove stain.

For the participants of Konaković's gathering, it is almost certainly too late to repair the damage; for all others, it is a serious lesson and a teaching for the future.