YOUR EFFORTS ARE IN VAIN The Bosnian knot will not be untangled by an office in Belgrade, nor by Pompeo in Zagreb

By: Rasim Belko

---

Once Constantinople, Pest, Vienna. Today Belgrade, Zagreb, Brussels. The reins of Bosnia and Herzegovina's destiny never seem to fall into the hands of Bosnians and Herzegovinians. There are few points on the coordinates of this planet where this piece of land called Bosnia and Herzegovina is not discussed and decided upon.

Let's not go back to the period before the restoration of independence. Let's start from 1990, the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the beginning of a new Bosnian-Herzegovinian history. From Slobodan Milošević, through Franjo Tuđman, to regional leaders, and then further to Lisbon, Geneva, Dayton, and Paris.

Plans were made and broken, discussions were held, agreements and negotiations took place. It started with the Cutileiro Plan, continued with the Vance-Owen Plan, then the Owen-Stoltenberg Plan, the Plan from the aircraft carrier "Invincible", the European Union Action Plan, and it all ended more or less with the Washington and Dayton Agreements.

All before the last two failed for one very simple reason. Three peoples live in this small country in the Balkans who could never agree that they are the same people, but after every conflict, they could agree to live in peace and togetherness. And no one could ever bring about change in this hilly country until the three types of Bosnian and Herzegovinian people accepted it together.
Does it make sense then to make decisions about Bosnians and Herzegovinians today without them. No! Regardless of whether political idiots like Milanović or Trump's envoys, enamored with blood-stained hegemonists, are discussing and agreeing on it.

Because, what does the opening of some kind of American office in Belgrade, which will supposedly cover the entire region, mean for Bosnia and Herzegovina. We have already experienced, dear Americans, how various offices from Belgrade have destroyed us.

We are also aware, dear Americans, of the testimonies about your support for Greater Serbia in its attempts. Vuk Drašković revealed a lot about your and Serbian love. So why are you opening an office in Belgrade and lying to us that it will be good for us too. It won't be, dear Americans, because you are dealing with Aleksandar Vučić. And that Vučić is a product of some of Milošević's teachers, political ones and those who hate Bosnia and Herzegovina from outside Serbia. And never, anyone who loves Bosnia and Herzegovina, will believe that an American office in Belgrade can help in BiH.

And we will believe even less that what you are discussing in Zagreb can help the development of BiH. Because, that and such Zagreb stabbed Bosnia and Herzegovina in the back in the most difficult moments. It destroyed bridges that connect people, killed life, all under the Karadjordjević motto of two great countries that divide BiH.

And today we are supposed to believe that the most powerful man in the current US administration will arrange something good for BiH in Zagreb. No, we don't believe it, and there are many reasons for that. Why should we believe that Plenković or anyone else in the Croatian government knows better what BiH needs. In fact, we know what they are looking for. They are interested in the division of BiH, first along ethnic, and then along geographical lines.

Because, the talk about the constitutionality of Croats in BiH is a viral joker of Croatian academics as successors to Tuđman's policies. You Americans know very well that Croats are not endangered in BiH, but that this is a matrix of the Croatian Democratic Union, in order to return Zagreb's pawn Dragan Čović to the BiH Presidency.

And that matrix of "Croatian endangerment", transferred to the US, would sound like "With the election of Obama, all white people in America were endangered". Nonsensical, isn't it. And quite racist.
What can Mike Pompeo resolve about BiH through talks in Croatia. Zagreb is only about a 40-minute flight from Sarajevo. It's not far, and it would be necessary. Because, the fate of Bosnia and Herzegovina must be resolved in Sarajevo. In its capital. Only then will we get solutions that everyone will accept and respect.

In the case of some Zagreb or Belgrade solutions, you can forget about success. There are, Western comrades, other options too. Invite the leaders of BiH to Brussels or Washington, and there, with them, resolve the issue of BiH. But this time, without the successors of Tuđman and Milošević. Because, while you Americans are running to Zagreb and Belgrade, an airport is being built in Bosnia and Herzegovina a stone's throw from the Adriatic Sea. Serbia plans to build it, and Russia will also be able to use it. Do you need another fight with "enemies" in BiH after all the battles with the Russians in Montenegro?

This is not resolved in the region, but in BiH. In its institutions.

I recently wrote that the foreign policy of the Trump administration is the weakest in decades. Resolving the issue of a sovereign state, which the United States was among the first to recognize, is unacceptable and doomed to failure from the outset.

Americans and Europeans together have stirred this Bosnian-Herzegovinian political pot. It is time for them to finish it, before it explodes.

Because, if there is a new explosion, many would get burned.

Especially since the winds are blowing stronger and stronger in the Bosnian hills.