Assemblies and agreements of peoples

Written by: Senadin Lavić

We are still talking about the Bosniak Assembly (1993), the Washington Agreement (1994), and the Dayton Peace Agreement (1995), showing that we do not know their complete structure, content, circumstances, and consequences for Bosnian society. Not because we “don’t know,” but because we do not exhibit moral-epistemic integrity towards these events that led to the cementing of a country divided by war aggression.

Only today is the “drawn project” clearly visible, conceived before the war, and the war “served” as an instrument for objectifying or materializing the prepared division of Bosnia between two great-state hegemonies and a rather confused policy of “Islamizing the political” that led Bosnia down the wrong path of history. It was a totally wrong idea of politics as representation of the people! A political party appears as a tribal or religious institution that gives itself the right to supposedly represent an entire people – that is a long-gone era. Political parties do not represent peoples or ethnic-religious groups!

The result of centuries of terror over Bosnia is today's totalitarian rule of ethnicism (ethno-politics, tribal assemblies at the “guvno,” cult of the national leader, devastation of state institutions) which serves the nationalism of Serbdom and Croatdom and creates an inhumane living environment. With what right or on what basis do Serbia and Croatia exercise control over a part of the Bosnian people? Why don’t Serbia and Croatia exercise such a right over Serbian and Croatian national groups in Austria or Germany or even in France in the same way they hegemonically do in Bosnia during the 20th century?

That is why the obsolete phrase “constituent peoples” was devised, by which, like retardates in the wilderness of history, they need “legitimate representatives,” leaders, guardians. “Constituentness” is the basis for interference in the internal affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It perpetuates the notion of “conflict among peoples” and ignores “free citizens.”

During the unfortunate year of 1993, the Republic of BiH was under direct attack from Serbia and Croatia. It seemed that it would disappear in the fire of Belgrade-Zagreb hegemonism, but things took a different turn. Tuđman’s military units under the name HVO in BiH suffered a terrible defeat and were on the verge of total collapse. In fact, they were auxiliary units of the HV!

In that year of 1993, the Bosniak Assembly took place in Sarajevo, where the Owen-Stoltenberg plan for ending the war was discussed. Negotiations on the peace plan were held in Geneva, and the plan was “responded to” on September 27 and 28, 1993, in Sarajevo.

The basis of the plan was the division of Bosnia according to Milošević’s and Tuđman’s ideas. The plan was rejected, and the creation of three ethnic republics on the territory of the Republic of BiH was not accepted. It is interesting that many hide and forget that this assembly was within the “framework of the ethno-political paradigm” by which the Republic of BiH was to be completely annulled and reduced to a union of three ethno-religious territories that would eventually become independent in an irredentist undertaking!

It is the result of ethno-politics into which Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats were pushed. This shallow, populist policy envisioned Bosnia as an “ethnically divided territory.” It is a continuation of that naive policy which, throughout the 20th century, only “Islamized” or “Christianized” the political as such, i.e., reduced it to ethnic and religious determination. Serbia benefited solely from this, and later Croatia as well.

This ethnic-religious fragmentation of Bosnia began in 1990 with the SDA policy of the “Bosniak cultural-historical circle,” which opened a chasm of political tribalism (“tribal” negotiations) that absolutely suited Belgrade and Zagreb in the ethnic splitting of the Bosnian being and the destruction of any Bosnian political identity and project. Belgrade and Zagreb monitored the situation and immediately installed the already prepared SDS and HDZ concept in Bosnia, directly involving themselves in all political processes of the other country.

Their crucial task was to “represent” Bosnian Serbs-Orthodox and Croats-Catholics and to reject any concept of Bosnianship. Sovereignty was renounced by the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and reduced to ethnic-religious groups. This is the meaning of the entire project of a “three-tribal community” in which three peoples “agree” that Bosnia cannot be established as a nation-state of all its citizens. That is why Bosnia is today held captive by ethno-fascism, which is gradually suffocating it.

On April 8, 1992, the Presidency of BiH made a decision to change the name of the state: SR BiH was then called the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Due to the aggression of Serbia and Montenegro, and then Croatia, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was destroyed and divided into two entities between 1992-1995. This was a joint effort of the aggressors, the international community, and domestic politicians. Most of us today behave as if we are watching a nightmarish film and as if this nightmare is happening to someone else!

It is clear that the Dayton division of Bosnia's territory into two entities (in a “ratio” of 51:49) satisfied the interests of Milošević and Tuđman in terms of their countries directly (special ties) and indirectly controlling the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The smaller entity is under the control of Serbia and Serbian hegemony because the Bosniaks who were expelled and killed there are no longer consulted, and the Federation of BiH was formed in 1994 as a “confederation” with Croatia.

But why should we have to accept the fascist ideas and plans of Milošević and Tuđman? We do not have to and must not accept these projections. We must loudly tell all of humanity and that cynical part of the so-called international community, composed of bureaucrats and mercenaries, bribed schemers and criminals, that we do not agree today to a peaceful euthanasia after genocide and wartime horrors. Bosnians have been betrayed by the entire Dayton project and are today in a state of total crisis, migratory disappearance, and struggle for survival.

The Duke of The Hague and the Chetnik Duke Šešelj have returned to “Vučić’s world” and there become moral figures who educate Serbian children on obscure television channels. Isn't that a clear instruction on what to do!? Serbia has not been ashamed of the crimes it committed in Bosnia, nor has it asked for forgiveness, and it does not intend to stop its expansionist madness! From the darkness of Serbia come new dangerous demands for Bosnian territory and the “right of Serbs” to seize others' lands.