Political and social contexts in which we live

September 2022 – September 2023

Bosnia and Herzegovina: There will be no more war. Long live war.

 

While around the world, after New Year’s, citizens slowly return to normal everyday life, their stomachs full and their wallets empty, with some post-holiday blues here and there, the inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina, their wallets permanently empty, are traditionally awaiting another wave of inflation, mass price hikes of basic foodstuffs and declining living standards, as well as celebrations for 9 January. This date in many ways determines the course of political events in the weeks to come. Because, a strong Republika Srpska is a call to awaken national awareness in the other two most numerous groups in BiH, which gives mainstream media a reason to present the situation as if war will break out tomorrow. Even though, there will be no war.

Every 9 January

Celebrating Republika Srpska Day, as we know it today, started in 2014, the year that also saw the first Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Vidovdan gathering of Serb political, ecclesiastical and intellectual elites in Višegrad, united around the idea of the Memorandum. This time, political officials went a step further, situating the central celebration of 9 January not in Banjaluka, as before, but in Istočno Sarajevo. A poke in the eye for citizens of Sarajevo who spent 1425 under siege precisely because of the ideas originated on that particular 9 January 1992. The Serb tricolour flag totalling 527 meters in length was unfurled in the streets. Surrounding the day itself, the president of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik awarded medals to various persons from the political, religious, cultural and sporting life of Srpska and Serbia. Among the most prominent recipients were Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Patriarch Porfirije. Though there is awareness about the danger of such gestures on both sides of the entity line, the condemnation was lukewarm, and there were no sanctions to suggest that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a unique, secular state aiming to do away with divisive policies and stalemates.

Elections come and go

After the last General Elections held in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2022, governments were meant to be constituted at the start of this year. Although the situation remained unchanged in Republika Srpska, with SNSD convincingly staying put in all its positions and once again with suspicions of stolen elections, but no sanctions, in the Federation of BiH, the mathematics of forming the government turned against SDA. A coalition was formed in the Sarajevo Canton, and the parties of the “Eight”, gathered around SDP, started systematically eliminating SDA and its satellite DF from power at higher levels of government. However, the “Eight” fell apart at the cantonal level before taking on the heavy burden that was before them. They were down to “Three”, SDP, NS and NiP. There are divisive tensions among the “Three” as well, mainly because of NiP, which is a fundamentally right-wing party and often obstructs many processes, oppresses human rights and supports corruptive activities.

At the Federal level, the “Eight” remained with HDZ, continuing with the practice of bad staffing, giving primacy to party connections, appointing ministers accused of domestic violence and various other criminal activities, trading positions within the coalition, making concessions, and maintaining a high level of populism and constantly shifting blame and responsibility. Taking over a large number of institutions at the Federation and state level was too hasty, the existing crimes had not been sufficiently sanctioned, capital projects were halted, and all this elicited anger among voters, verging on hysteria among those most “patriotically inclined”.

Suppressing human rights for a more just BiH

At the end of last year, Bosnia and Herzegovina was given candidate status by the European Union. Among its many commitments, such as more transparent and efficient policies, social and economic justice, etc., this new status requires a new level of respect for human rights and freedom of the press. However, there has been evident backsliding on these issues. In early March, the president of Republika Srpska announced that defamation would be criminalised, which was implemented in August through changes to the RS Criminal Code, making defamation a criminal offence after it had been decriminalised for 22 years, despite protests from international organisations, civil society and the media. This was preceded by labelling reporters as foreign agents and accusing them of acting against the system and Republika Srpska, which resulted in several attacks on reporters in Banja Luka. LGBTIQ+ activists were also attacked in Banja Luka after the police banned their event and they retreated to a secure location from which they were delivered by police forces into the hands of hooligans. A contributing factor were pro-regime media spins focusing on Milorad Dodik and Draško Stanivuković, who were advocating for the patriarchy and traditional family values, implying potential laws to ban LGBTIQ+ persons from educational institutions, as well as a law that would control funding of non-governmental organisations and independent media by foreign organisations, despite the fact that the government also receives such funding.

In addition to this, citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina are being deprived of their basic human rights to water, air and land, both last year and this year. River beds are increasingly being dug up for gravel by private companies with government connections, and geological surveys have continued in an effort to discover lithium, silver, gold and other lucrative metals for exploitation and export.

Who needs Schmidt

Christian Schmidt took office as High Representative in BiH in 2021 and his mandate has been plagued by debates in BiH and the countries of the region about the legality and legitimacy of his appointment, with some calling him “illegitimate” and “false” or “illegally appointed” because he was not approved by the UN Security Council. This debate heated up before and after the elections held in October last year, after Schmidt imposed changes to the Election Law, which the SDA sees as the main reason for its loss of power at the Federal level. Since then, Schmidt has been maligned by Serbs and Bosniaks alike. In April, dissatisfied citizens, led by the SDA and its satellites, protested in front of the OHR building, warning that Christian Schmidt’s intentions were discriminatory, anti-democratic and harmful to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was preceded by arrests of several SDA and coalition officials who had held high political offices in the past. Milorad Dodik went a step further and wants to ban the High Representative from entering the territory of RS, which goes against the Constitution, and in July, he filed a criminal report against Schmidt for allegedly illegally acting as the High Representative. He had also reported the director of the BiH Official Gazette, Dragan Prusina, who had enabled the publication of the High Representative’s decisions.

Commemorations for new majorisations

Since the end of the war until today, the government in BiH has always treated commemorative practices in bad faith and with populist overtones, aiming to deepen tensions and divisions among peoples and former warring parties. Almost every news programme with national coverage begins with a commemoration in some place, sending the message that, if it comes to that again, next time we will be stronger and better prepared to avenge these victims. Only marginalised individuals commemorate victims in a dignified manner, sending messages of remembering, forgiveness and reconciliation. This year, the authorities went a step further when it comes to commemorations. An example of this is the regular commemoration in Donja Gradina where each year there are manipulations with the number of victims and efforts to create the impression that only Serbs were killed in Jasenovac, no Jews, Roma, antifascists or others. There were several other events that elicit shame and unease.

The commemoration to the killed children of Sarajevo on 5 May, the Day of Remembrance dedicated to children killed in besieged Sarajevo 1992-1995, was an awkward performance where no single name of a child victim was read. Demeaning cardboard cut-outs of child figures were also used in Sarajevo to commemorate the children killed in Prijedor. The installation lasted until the first rain, and was put up by the contentious AntiDayton Movement, which had only recently been decorated with the “Medal of the City of Sarajevo”. The organisation also had its initiative to raise a large white canvas over the Vijećnica in memory of the victims from Prijedor approved, but after a public outcry, this plan was scrapped. Unfortunately, this will be impossible next year, because after a projection of the rainbow on the Vijećnica on the day of the Pride Parade was not approved, the Sarajevo City Council voted to ban all projections, save those of special significance. Projections are acceptable on dates of significance for the city of Sarajevo and to commemorate victims from Prijedor and Srebrenica – thus establishing and legally codifying the hierarchy of victims within one people.

In the context of commemorative practices, this means that some victims are worth more because they are from Sarajevo, because they sacrificed their lives for Sarajevo and their names will be projected on the Vijećnica, as opposed to the names of victims from Prijedor, Zvornik, Foča, etc.

Another in a host of malicious commemorations with a political revisionist agenda aimed at eliciting the basest of emotions, absent any well-meaning idea about remembering suffering, was that for the victims of Operation Storm in Prijedor. A town where 3176 non-Serbs were killed and where the largest mass grave from the past war was discovered. While the political elites from across the Sava came to Prijedor to make a spectacle about the suffering and pain of the Serb people in Croatia, with no mention of the context and political decisions surrounding these events, or of the shameful treatment those fleeing Operation Storm received in Serbia where they sought refuge, in Croatia, in Otočac and the nearby village of Doljani, the local authorities and the Serb National Council of Croatia came together to commemorate the fallen Croat defenders and  Serb civilians killed during and after Operation Storm, thereby sending a message about the importance of mutual respect for victims, whatever their nationality.

Women are our property. Long live women

Bosnian-Herzegovinian society is deeply patriarchal and traditional, with open war wounds and an enormous stock of legal and illegal firearms. All this makes for ideal conditions for violence, especially if you add poverty and other failing social parameters to the mix. Contemporary BiH society still considers domestic violence a private matter and prefers to look the other way. There have been at least ten victims of femicide in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the beginning of the year. There are no official statistics, and the crime is not qualified as such, but a survey of media headlines would suggest this number. The case from Gradačac, where the killer streamed the femicide of his wife on social media, further opened the question of how malignant BiH society is, who are the people who watched the stream and supported it with their reactions. Punishments for violence and murder are still not strict enough, but there is consensus in society that violence is unacceptable. Even if femicide were to be introduced into the criminal code, it is quite possible it wouldn’t be treated as such by an under-trained and sluggish justice system.

Protests at on the entity line

Because of the unconstitutional decision not to publish the decisions of the High Representative in BiH Christian Schmidt, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH filed charges against the president of RS and the director of the RS Official Gazette, which led to protests across Republika Srpska, along the entity line, because protests are prohibited in front of the Court of BiH. Just like every other year, Milorad Dodik has come up with another performance to count potential votes and sympathisers. If it’s not a referendum on secession, then it’s protests on the entity line, because they couldn’t have them in Sarajevo. Official Sarajevo made a colossal mistake and contributed to deepening a new inter-entity rift that evidently suits both sides, because if Dodik’s followers had been allowed to gather in front of the Court of BiH, they would have thus given legitimacy to that institution and the whole of BiH that they refuse to recognise. As things are, we have further separation and strengthening of the national being, which evidently suits everyone just fine.

Kovačević is also against BiH

Slaven Kovačević, advisor to the Croat Member of the Presidency of BiH Željko Komšić, that Croats claim was elected mostly by Bosniak votes, has sued Bosnia and Herzegovina before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and the judgement concluded that members must be elected to the Presidency of BiH from the entire country, not from entities, that there should be a single electoral unit for the Presidency of BiH and for the House of Peoples of the BiH parliament – a single electoral unit, no entities. The chances of this judgement being implemented are minimal; half of the citizens of BiH, mainly non-Bosniaks, fear that by abolishing all ethnic and/or entity mechanisms would place them in the position of a minority, and being a minority, in our historical experience, means being discriminated. At the same time, there is no doubt that ethnic and/or entity mechanisms discriminate against those without ethnic affiliation, or with the wrong affiliation in the wrong place, meaning anyone who is not a Bosniak, Serb or Croat, or who is a Bosniak or Croat but lives in RS, or who is a Serb but lives in FBiH. Meanwhile, there is no meaningful dialogue to open processes that would take these concerns into account.

Depopulation and stagnation. There will be no war

It has been ten years since the first and last population census in BiH. Over that decade, the country has lost almost half a million of its working population to emigration. Already back then, in addition to some negligible statistical details, the census showed how many there were of each ethnic group, and the fact that 97% of the population of our country is religious. Ten years after the census, school and university enrolment quotas are not even half-filled, young people are leaving the country in droves, not just because of a lack of job opportunities, but also because of the general state of hopelessness, corruption and lack of prospects for the future. Loans are taken out to disburse retirement benefits, because there is no one left to fill the retirement fund. Every little while there is a humanitarian number you can call to contribute to someone’s medical treatment, very often there is a shortage of critical medicines, cytostatic drugs, etc. The lists of essential medicines that should be provided to citizens free of charge keep getting shorter. Social benefits are meagre, few and far between, usually disbursed just before the elections and portrayed as the political elites giving the citizens free money out of their magnanimity.

Activists are getting tired, often having to do the job of institutions and being practically the only corrective in the reality we are living, because the opposition is merging with the ruling political parties.

Even though SDA, the largest nationalist party, has been removed from power in the Federation of BiH, nationalism is still booming. Some political options that portray themselves as pro-civic are much more rigid and dangerous. There is growing clericalism in politics and public life. In Republika Srpska, the opposition which is formally right-wing, currently has less severe policies than the ruling parties. All three nationalisms live in the past, hampering hopes for the future, each sabre-rattling as needed under the guise of providing protection from the other two, while actually lending legitimacy to the other two to do the same, and thus perpetuating nationalism and making it bloom. The post-war situation, with all its fears, impossibilities and general apathy and disenfranchisement, persists undisturbed. Still, there will be no war.

Vanja Šunjić

Croatia: Country, village, city

When on 1 July 2013, Croatia joined the European Union, few could predict what life and society would be like in ten years’ time. The great expectations of the majority and the bleakest premonitions of the Eurosceptic part of the population remind us how the wheel of historical luck keeps spinning and we never actually know what’s to come. Today, after ten years of European Union membership, we can view what happened to Croatia from a certain distance and conclude that in 2023, Croatia definitely breathes and looks different.

Escape from the periphery

 At the start of 2023, Croatia reached the final stage of its integration crescendo. Namely, by becoming part of Schengen and removing borders with Slovenia and Hungary, Croatia joined the company of European states not separated by borders. This idea, at the very heart of the creation of the European Union, represents the pinnacle of its concept of bringing peace and one of the greatest benefits of Union membership. In the case of Croatia, it means that from Zagreb to Berlin or Warsaw, there are no more physical borders limiting travel and traffic. For Croatia, this also means that its border with Serbia, BiH and Montenegro is now the external Schengen and EU border and has become much less permeable and much more of a hard border, making life more difficult for a large majority of people who still carry the burden of family and other ties with the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Currently, it is easier for a kilo of cocaine to enter Croatia than a kilo of Livno cheese, because, obviously, the latter is a far greater threat to the integrity of the EU. The punishments for trying to smuggle in the two contraband goods are also similar. Furthermore, an electronic system is being developed that would require all non-EU citizens to pay seven euros and register each planned crossing of the EU border. Fortress Europe, the Antemurale Christianitatis, is being defended on the Sava, at Izačić and Mount Dinara, and every intruder/non-EU citizen must pay seven euros to enter and register before dipping a toe in our Adriatic or partaking of štrukli in our Zagorje. How much more will it cost to get a work permit or seek a better future?

At the start of the year, Croatia also bid farewell to one of its fundamental symbols of statehood. The euro replaced the Croatian kuna. Croatia was incorporated into the community of European states with one euro coins featuring the portrait of Nikola Tesla. This did not go by unremarked, either on this or the other side of the external EU border, given that Tesla on the coin was a poke in the eye for others who also lay claim to him, i.e. our eastern neighbours, which was greeted with great approval in Croatia, of course. As they say, good thing we put Tesla on a coin first, just so they can’t. We’ll see what will happen when the time comes for the 100 dinar bill to be transformed into 1 euro.

Although joining the Schengen zone and introducing the euro represented the final stage of Croatia’s integration into the EU, and its formal drawing closer to the centre of the EU and to Western Europe, which can be seen as a fulfilment of set national goals, in many respects Croatia remains deeply connected and bound to what Westerners refer to as the Western Balkans, and despite its longing to escape that company, it still has one foot in the shallow puddle of small peripheral states.

Humane displacement

A decade of EU membership has enabled Croatia to humanely displace 10% of its population to Ireland, Germany and other more prosperous countries, and to replace it a bit less humanely with people prepared to move to Croatia where they will now be paid even less for jobs that made the natives leave, that the natives didn’t want to do. Back in the 1990s, when dreams of statehood finally became reality, it would have been hard to imagine a scenario involving the organised arrival of tens of thousands of Nepalese. At that time, humane displacement was part of official and unofficial policy, and areas from which Croatian and Krajina Serbs had fled were being populated by Croats who had fled from BiH. Although workers from the Indian subcontinent are mostly imported into urban areas, especially Zagreb and its surroundings, it is becoming increasingly common in Korenica or Udbina to meet a group of construction or delivery workers who look nothing like they’d just come down the side of Mount Plješevica, but more like they just stepped out of a Bollywood movie.

In any case, “national romantics may dream, but economic integration determines”, so it is currently estimated that there are some 200 thousand foreign workers living in Croatia, mostly concentrated around urban centres. The national statistics institute says 124,000 work permits were issued in 2022 alone. That number tells us that a huge population shift has taken place over the past ten years, with 10% of the domicile population leaving and the arrival of 6-8% of the total number of foreign workers, who are still mostly coming from countries with which Croatia shares a former common state and the shallow peripheral puddle, but increasingly include workers from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, etc. who are given the most unpopular jobs (delivery, construction, and increasingly sales).

On the surface of the media, much is still made of the departure of Croatians, “the young are leaving” as they say, but it is a matter of days before the lack of integration policies, understanding and political culture leads to the media being swamped with issues of dark-skinned immigrants pushing out and endangering “honest local folks”.

Knowing the mechanisms behind “honest local folks”, we can only watch with apprehension to see what the integration and social life of growing numbers of foreign workers will look like, as they keep arriving because money doesn’t ask where you’re from, only how much you can work.

Even though the border with BiH and Serbia is ever harder and more violent, and even though “Fortress Europe” is being defended on the external EU border with violent pushbacks of wretched migrants stuck in BiH, paradoxically, it was precisely because Croatia joined the EU and the intractable mechanism of its common market for people and capital that the number of those coming to Croatia from third countries in search of happiness and better opportunities has increased exponentially.

A wasted musical effort – to paraphrase a freshly broken-up Zagreb band that currently exists in two forms.

Super-election year

Political relations in Croatia have been marked by relative stability and a quiet mainstream course pursued by Brusselized HDZ under the leadership of Andrej Plenković. Apart from some minor squabbles initiated and cooked up by the reality show host playing the role of president of the Republic, not much has happened to indicate any potential major shift or change in Croatia. I guess that’s what happens when the centre of power moves to bureaucratised Bruxelles – the space for making a spectacle of yourself, shouting, kicking up dust and turning the country into a reality show shrinks significantly. Of course, our dear leader has found alternative ways to heighten tensions and attract attention, filling up the media space indirectly via our neighbours, and in particular by toying with the fate of BiH and its complex internal relations. There was also no shortage of awkward and malicious statements about women, minorities and people who are not in a position of power in society.

Once the silent hope of liberal and progressive Croatia, he has turned into its worst nightmare, which is precisely why his chances for re-election are so high.

Next year will be a super-election year in Croatia, with European, presidential and general/parliamentary elections coming up. Campaigns are already being prepared, candidate lists are being compiled and PR agencies are being paid to come up with topics that can be used to shift public focus in order to ensure election victory.

It is highly unlikely that the inflation eating up our salaries and making it impossible for us to live lives worthy of “workers, Croatians and EU citizens” will be a popular topic. We can only hope that the campaigns will not be based on the same old passions and topics that traditionally riled everyone up and won elections. Shifting decision-making from the periphery has somewhat prevented Ustashas and Partisans, as well as more recent actors from the last war, from having outsized election mobilisation power as they did before, and this gives us hope that future elections and campaigns might be conducted around things that are of more vital importance to us. We might finally, as they say, leave the past behind.

The upcoming general/parliamentary elections will be conducted under new rules for constituencies, after the old rules were judged by the Constitutional Court to be unconstitutional since not all votes had the same value. The new changes have introduced some interesting mammoth constituencies that, though formally constitutional and ensuring at least an approximately equal value of votes, are still unusual and may indicate that not everything was done properly. The opposition says the constituencies were formed to ensure HDZ would survive and maintain power, while the government says that constitutional and legal provisions on constituencies did not leave it much room for manoeuvre.

In any case, voters dream, but the government decides, and we have an interesting year ahead of us.

Dalmir Mišković

 

Serbia: Serbia against violence

All of us who live in Serbia know exactly where we were and what we were doing on the morning of 3 May 2023. It was Wednesday, the first working day after the First of May holiday. The weather was a bit chilly, but sunny, typical for early May. Parents got up that morning, prepared breakfast, got their kids ready for school. Then they hurried off to work.

Over their first coffee that morning, the news started coming in.

The first breaking news was that there was a shooting at a school in the centre of Belgrade. The centre of Belgrade is big, home to several hundred thousand people and there are many schools. No one was calm, the news was slowly trickling in at first, but then the sensationalism started.

An ordinary Wednesday became a Wednesday we would never forget.

Nine children and the security guard at the Vladislav Ribnikar Primary School were killed. They were shot dead by a pupil from the school. Another six were wounded.

We were all in shock.

I went to my child’s school to hug my child. Classes were cancelled. Children had been learning about the topography of Serbia or writing compositions about “In the future, I see myself as…”, while just a few hundred meters away, their peers from sports practice, from kindergarten, from music school were being carried out in body bags. I hugged my child, and I wanted to hug all the children of this sad city and this sad country. I didn’t weep, I just wanted to hug all the children.

To tell them how sorry I was for the society they live in.

To ask them for forgiveness because they live amidst violence and because I am helpless to protect them from violence.

While I was holding my child, the powers that be in this country held a press conference. The Belgrade Chief of Police showed the reporters a list a children made by the killer. The names on the list could be made out and almost all the media published the photo. Apart from the killed and wounded children, the list included names of other children, those who were lucky to survive, but had witnessed the killing and would be marked for life.

Every child in this country could have been on that list. No one in their right mind would have ever made that list public.

And yet, the Chief of Police did, and the minister standing behind him did not prevent this, and there were reporters in front of them, some of whom, to be fair, did not publish the list, but most did.

And we were all in front of our screens – both children and parents, the whole of Serbia, in sorrow.

Pain

Everyone has a handful of days in their personal history that they will remember forever – their wedding day, the days when their children were born, days when something extraordinarily beautiful or sad happened. Society adds a few more such days – Americans know where they were and what they were doing when Kennedy was shot, or on the morning of September 11th, 2001.

Those of us living in Serbia know where we were on 5 October 2000 when the government was toppled. We know where we were on 28 June 2001 when Slobodan Milošević was extradited to the Hague Tribunal. We know where we were on 12 March 2003 when Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić was assassinated.

And we know where we were on 3 May 2023.

We also know where we were the next day, 4 May 2023.

Late in the evening that day, a twenty-one-year-old young man killed eight young people (aged 15-25) in the villages of Malo Orašje and Dubona near Mladenovac. He wounded another 15 people. Even though the killer had been reported for violence multiple times before, he was protected by a powerful father, an officer for military counter-intelligence, who had secret connections. The father and another man suspected of aiding and abetting this crime were apprehended days later, and they are also suspected of dealing in illegal arms trade, because arsenals of weapons were found in their homes.

We were left speechless.

Fear

All these people live here, around us, all these people who seem to have nothing better to teach their children than to shoot and collect firearms. All these people who venerate mass killers, unaware of the responsibility they have not just for their own, but for all other children and people around them. All these people who protect and justify violence, all these people who publish the names of the children who were on the killer’s list, all these people who defend the president of Serbia and his party instead of their own children, all these people who turn out for a rally in support of the president of Serbia while children lay white flowers on the graves of their schoolmates, all these people who run over children on pedestrian crossings and don’t answer for it, all these people in the corrupt justice system who do not convict murderers, all these people who protect the director of “Namenska” in Lučani and not the Milovanović family’s efforts for someone to be held responsible for the death of their child in that factory, all those more than 22 thousand people employed by state-owned companies who become bots for the president and his party, all the people who glorify war criminals, the ones drawing Ratko Mladić’s face on the facades of Belgrade… They live around us, they say hello when we pass in the stairwell, they pet our dogs in the park, they swear by family values while shouting “Kill the fags!”  or “Knife, wire, Srebrenica!” or “Next year in Prizren” or “When the army returns to Kosovo”.

They live around us and if we don’t stand up to them, they will come for us with violence.

They’re already on their way.

Awakening

So, we got on our way, to the protests “Serbia against violence”. From 8 May until now, we were in Belgrade 19 times,^[1] but also in other cities in Serbia, sometimes more than a hundred thousand of us in the streets.

The main demands are: 1) resignation of Branko Ružić (education minister, resigned in a personal letter on 7 May), Bratislav Gašić (police minister) and Aleksandar Vulin (head of the Security Intelligence Agency); 2) Resignations of the members of the regulatory body for electronic media and Serbian public broadcasters; 3) rescind the national broadcasting licences of RTV Pink and Hepi TV.

The protests are of the citizens, though they are technically organised by some of the opposition parties.

Why are we on the streets? Because of the violence.

And because we can’t come up with a better solution at the moment.

We are in the grips of helplessness, and I sincerely hope that there is a possibility for change somewhere, it’s just that right now, from this position, from the vortex of violence we’re caught in, I can’t make it out.

Everything else that could be said about Serbia and life inside it is also defined by violence: the attitude towards Kosovo and the people who live there, with Serbs particularly at risk from various political mafia interests on both the Serb and the Albanian side, and the fact that the presidents of Serbia and Republika Srpska marked the anniversary of Operation Storm in Prijedor, with nothing to say about the suffering of local non-Serbs, and the fact that negligence following the severe weather in Bačka Palanka caused the death of a grandfather and grandson, even though citizens had reported the severed electricity lines 27 times, and the man who spoke about this at the protests was fired from his job, and the fact that because of private political opinions posted on Twitter, a scientist got fired, and the fact that children of parents with different political views are being thrown out of nursery school, and the fact that the lives of police officers doing their job and not being corrupt are put at risk, and the fact that it is at all possible for a convicted war criminal to speak via video link from his prison cell to pupils at a primary school, and that in only the first six months of this year, 20 women were killed… and the fact that inflation has reduced the majority of citizens to poverty, and that over the past 40 days Aleksandar Vučić has addressed us 30 times on national TV, saying “he” would be the one to build stadiums and fairgrounds, meanwhile you have to wait years for medical interventions (if you need hip or knee surgery and you apply today, you will be scheduled for the procedure in 2033), and the fact that those of us protesting against violence are being called hyenas and scavengers by the government…

This is the violence we live and breathe each day.

Serbia against violence is not a statement – it’s a cry for help.

I can only hope it is also a political promise for the future.

Katarina Milićević

^[1] This text was written on 11 September 2023. The protests continue.

 

North Macedonia: On the Bulgarians, yet again

The weather forecast for this year is a hot summer. The outside temperature adds heat to the already heated discussion for and against constitutional changes. Currently, one of the conditions for Macedonia joining the European Union has to do with constitutional amendments, i.e., whether Bulgarians will be added to the Constitution. We are regularly exposed to numerous arguments, discussions, analyses and logical conclusions for and against introducing Bulgarians into the Constitution. The situation has become polarised and, unfortunately, suggestions contributed by experts do not shed light on what would be gained or lost by introducing Macedonian Bulgarians into the Constitution, or what the consequences may be. Everyone is presenting different arguments to defend their position, some very good and legitimate, on both sides.

Many professors have even taken the trouble to prove logically and scientifically that Bulgarians must not be added to the Constitution. However, consciously or not, we forget that this is ultimately a political decision. Often, something that is logical in science proves illogical in politics.

From the discussions so far, it is not sufficiently clear who wants to keep Macedonian Bulgarians out of the Constitution – whether it is the political leadership of Bulgaria or, according to surveys, the majority of ethnic Macedonians. The former, perhaps, because it would be the only way to justify their unreasonable requirements, both past and present. As for the latter, it is not quite clear whether their opposition results from fear of possible consequences or the need to show how tired they are of being history’s victims.

It is certain that Macedonian Bulgarians will be written into the Constitution, just like all the other groups living in Macedonia, but it is unclear when this will happen. Including Bulgarians in the Constitution guarantees the continuation of our country’s negotiation with the European Union – a process that is said to be securing a European future for our country. Formally, we will be a step closer to joining the EU, which will help not just in strengthening the rights of minorities, but much more importantly, with better dealing with internal challenges. There’s an alternative, of course, the changes to the Constitution need not be adopted. In that case, we will probably be blocked from further negotiations with the EU. The disappointment will be huge. This will, hopefully only temporarily, deprive us of a European future. There will be no pre-accession funds, no European education, freedom of movement across borders, or hanging out with others from Europe. More and more young people will apply for Bulgarian passports, and Bulgaria will probably ask them to renounce their Macedonian identity in order to get them. We will be faced with dire political and economic consequences and blockades. The indirect consequences will be even more harmful in the long run. Slowly but surely, the country will become isolated and its young people will not have an opportunity to work or make a living. Even worse, any future political elite will have a ready excuse for its own failures, as we witnessed for decades during the conflict with Greece.

Македонија vs Maqedonia

Divisions along ethnic lines exist and are deepening each year, while ethnocentrism is being propagated through textbooks and school curricula. For years, textbooks in both Macedonian and Albanian have been promoting ethnic nationalism, and we are now witnessing the effects each day. Not enough is done to ensure inclusive education and pupils are being segregated based on ethnicity. We continue to go to separate schools, and in the rare case where we must share a building, we make sure we attend school in different shifts. And if we are in the same shift, we spend breaks in different parts of the school yard. Pupils from different ethnic communities rarely socialise in school. The kids don’t meet, they don’t communicate. And when they do, it’s most often in English. The academic communities have almost no communication between them. Studies have found that young people do not trust members of other ethnic communities, and don’t even like them as neighbours. Policies that prevent direct contact, especially between Albanian and Macedonian pupils, are justified by efforts to prevent conflict. We live next to each other. We rarely go out to the same places. We read different books and watch different TV channels. We are building parallel worlds of “our own”. Simply put, we know each other less and less, despite declarations of commitment to multiculturalism and coexistence. We remain slaves to our past and often believe that a feeling of security, happiness and hope can only be achieved in an ethnically homogeneous environment.

Education is our future

Although investment in education is often touted as investment in the country’s future, in reality, costs of education are seen as squandering resources. Research findings show that education spending is inefficient and has been decreasing year on year for the past decade or so. The number of teachers has been increasing despite a demographic decline. On average, a new teacher is hired for every 14 pupils less. According to the results of the PISA testing, more than half of fifteen-year-olds are functionally illiterate in science, mathematics and reading literacy. Close to 50 thousand children (from pre-school to secondary-school age) are not attending school. Over 14 thousand pre-school-aged children are not enrolled in education. Just as many, another 14 thousand children are not enrolled in primary school, while over 22 thousand children of secondary-school-age are not in education. Average expenditure for professional development per teacher is only 3.5 euros. Needless to say, professional development for teachers is underfunded and not considered a priority.

In what has practically become a tradition, once again some pupils will start the school year without textbooks. The same people who promised last year that they would not allow another school year to start without textbooks are now promising the same thing, but for next year.

Elections are (probably) next year

The opposition is convinced that the government cannot make good on its promises, which include starting negotiations with the European Union and constitutional amendments, so it makes the most sense to dissolve parliament and hold early parliamentary elections. Regular parliamentary elections are planned for next year.

We will be going to the polls in a very sensitive context. Bulgaria is not budging on its conditions for not vetoing our negotiations with the European Union. The EU’s inappropriate response has managed not just to amplify the arguments of Eurosceptics, but also to produce an anti-Western mood among even the most pro-Western citizens, primarily Macedonians. There’s a full-on hybrid war. Hate speech and disinformation, used as propaganda tools, have polarised public opinion, further reducing the already low levels of trust in political leaders, institutions and democratic processes. Elections are scheduled amidst high corruption and when the lack of rule of law and impunity are at alarming levels. All of this favours the most radical political options, primarily those from the Macedonian ethic group. The Albanian opposition has compromised itself severely over the past year. They have turned out to be not so much a political opposition as a political rival to DUI. We have seen that they are practically no different from the ruling Albanian party, their only aim is to win power, to depose the ruling party in order to continue doing things in the exact same way.

Invisible for society

In our society, people often become “invisible” because of their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, social status, etc. The problems and challenges facing persons with disabilities, chronic conditions or rare diseases, the elderly, stateless persons, refugees, sexual minorities, the homeless and members of many other marginalised groups most often remain invisible to others in society, but worse still, they remain invisible to the institutions of the system.

It is not just undocumented persons who are socially invisible. So too is the migrant recently shot dead by a police officer in Đevđelija, so too is the man suffering from cystic fibrosis who died after waiting almost two years to receive medicine that the state ultimately failed to provide. Also invisible is the struggle and suffering of many women trying to pull themselves out of imposed gender roles. Unfortunately, many women who do not meet the expectations imposed by society have been and continue to be victims of violence. Many women and girls march and protest for their rights, they’re not giving up, but we don’t see them, and neither does the government.

A shared future

The Constitution brings together on paper and enumerates all the ethnic groups living in our country. Those 3504 citizens who identified themselves as Bulgarian in the last census will probably be recorded as such, but this will not change reality. And the reality is that those of us living in Macedonia do not know each other, we do not identify as citizens and we are increasingly attached to our ethnic belonging. Communication, empathy and trust are at their lowest levels. The trust of Macedonian citizens in the European Union is at a record low, while progress towards joining the EU has been negligible. Corruption and crime are booming. Bulgarians, as well as other ethnicities, will soon see that there are no guarantees that the Constitution and policies to improve the rights of ethnic communities will produce coexistence, unless we all do our bit to build a shared future.

Luan Imeri

Montenegro: Going deeper

The government is arriving Milo Đukanović’s Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) was removed from government at the elections on 20 August 2020, after 30 years in power. The first, historical, post-DPS government led by Zdravko Krivokapić fell after fourteen months. It was toppled by Dritan Abazović with the help of DPS in early
2022, and he then went on to form a new, minority government with the support of part of the same majority, while receiving key votes from DPS. Dritan’s second government was significantly different both in the way it was established and in terms of the support it did (not) receive and its composition, but most importantly in terms of its primary aim, which was to tackle corruption and crime. Unfortunately, the remainder of the political coalition, except for some smaller parties, did not support that aim. After Abazović signed the Basic Agreement with the Serb Orthodox Church in 2022, DPS initiated the toppling of the government, which fell a hundred days or so later, thanks to the votes of Democrats and some smaller parties looking to take revenge on Abazović for toppling the previous government. It is also interesting that this government has managed to hold on to its caretaker status for longer than it managed to hold on to its original support (It received a vote of no confidence in 20 August 2022 and has been a caretaker government ever since). “A year has passed, but Dritan still rules.” This will continue until parliament chooses a new government proposed by the new prime minister- designate Milojko Spajić. But this third time lucky government is having a hard time arriving, because it is losing support and confidence before it has even been formed. We seem to be averse to governing, so our government mark is an unsatisfactory F.

Forced to be president

Forced to be president Jakov Milatović, nominated by the Europe Now Movement, convincingly won around 60% of the votes in the second round of the presidential elections held in April 2023, defeating Milo Đukanović and ending his three decades in power. The new president of Montenegro did not arrive in office without turbulence.
Namely, in late January, the presidency of the Europe Now Movement (Pokret Evropa sad, PES) selected their leader Milojko Spajić to be the presidential candidate. Spajić and Milatović are former ministers in the first government, led by Zdravko Krivokapić, following the replacement of DPS, and Europe Now was the name of
their economic programme. They later established a political movement under the same name, which was the biggest winner of the 2022 local elections in Podgorica where Milatović was to become mayor. However, due to issues over his residency and dual citizenship (both Montenegrin and Serbian), the State Elections Commission rejected the candidacy of Milojko Spajić, so Milatović was forced by circumstances to become the candidate and ultimately the president of the country.
Jakov Milatović’s victory in the presidential elections and triumph in the local elections in Podgorica filled the sails of the Europe Now Movement, which, though without significant infrastructural organisation, turned out to be wildly successful on the political scene and became hugely popular among the citizens of Montenegro. The result was that at the extraordinary parliamentary elections held in Montenegro on 11 June 2023, the Europe Now Movement won the most seats in parliament – 24. The coalition led by the Democratic Party of Socialists came in second, winning 21 seats. After the elections, president Jakov Milatović gave his party colleague (not to say boss) the mandate to form the government, but negotiations over its composition are still under way. The new head of government is facing waning support primarily because the putting together of the government started with taking away all those he would rather not share power with. Thus, the initial majority prognosis from the elections of at least 44 MPs has melted down to 42, which is still barely enough in a parliament numbering 81 seats.
The prime minister-designate has until 10 November 2023 to form his government. So far, it hasn’t been going well for him either!
More than anything, these rapid changes of government demonstrate that true change does not depend solely on the personalities and world views of post-DPS prime ministers and prime minister-designates, but entails thoroughly taking on the legacies of previous systems of power and institutional corruption. Everything that was meant to be inherited from the period before the wars of the 1990s has been systematically and quite thoroughly destroyed: education, culture, and socially acceptable and responsible conduct. Even much wiser and more democratic statesmen would have a hard time governing a society that had suffered such systematic and long-lasting political and economic destruction, let alone our young, handsome and confused prime ministers and prime minister-designates. Governing means serving the citizens, the betterment of society, the public good, and not personal or party interests.
We are yet to build up immunity to partitocracy. Ingenuine change, still an unsatisfactory F.

“Montenegro not running from the past”

In May 1992, the Montenegrin police illegally detained at least 66 and according to some estimates over 80 civilians from Bosnia and Herzegovina, mostly Bosniaks, who had entered Montenegro fleeing the war, and then delivered them into the hands of the Army of Republika Srpska. Most were summarily executed, while the remainder were taken to prison camps. According to Human Rights Action (HRA), only 12 survived the ensuing torture. The remains of the deported victims have not all been found yet, as the exact location where they were executed is not known. This crime of deportation was committed at the time when the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) was in power and Milo Đukanović was the prime minister. It has been 31 years since then. Based on a settlement reached in 2008, Montenegro paid damages for most of the victims of this war crime, but no one has been held responsible or convicted in criminal proceedings.
Last year, the director of the Police Authority at the time, Zoran Brđanin, issued an apology to victims and their families, and this year Dritan Abazović was the first prime minister of Montenegro to attend the commemoration marking the anniversary of the deportation. “This is Montenegro not running from the past but dealing with it. We are learning from historical mistakes in order to be better in the future,” Abazović stated. But this dealing with the past, from which, as the prime minister said, Montenegro is not running, has not included anything more than official apologies and attendance at commemorations.
Many years have gone by and much could and should have been done. This includes criminal prosecution, finding those who gave the order and inspired the crimes, recognising the victims in a dignified manner, installing a memorial and/or proclaiming an official day of memory, things that NGOs have been demanding for years. Besides, nothing has come of the strategy in which the Special State Prosecutor’s Office (SDT) committed to reviewing all cases of war crimes, which was adopted eight years ago; or the expedited prosecutorial and judicial reforms to ensure the independence of court proceedings; or the promised intensified work on investigating war crimes; or the changes and amendments to criminal procedure that were meant to make evidence presented before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia admissible in the Montenegrin justice system; or of ensuring the sustainability of the Information and Documentation Centre (currently run by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights) which was formally turned over to the Montenegrin parliament in 2021. In dealing with the past, still an unsatisfactory F+.

Population stagnation

According to Monstat data for last year, Montenegro has a population of close to 618,000, which is by a little over 3,000 more than in 1991 and represents considerable stagnation, especially compared to the end of the last millennium.
One of the reasons for this is that 140,000 citizens have left the country over the past 25 years, with 5,000 leaving in the last year alone. The reasons behind these migrations are many, but they certainly include a poor outlook for employment and earning a decent living, the political crisis and general instability, as well as employment based on party connections. When we add to this the rise in nationalism and the right wing, the constant political frictions and lack of consensus on all important socioeconomic issues, the choice for citizens of Montenegro about whether to leave or stay seems like a no-brainer. At the same time, not only does the government have no strategy for keeping the citizens from leaving, primarily young people, but it has not undertaken any concrete measures or steps for years in order to provide for their employment, which makes opportunities for young people to become independent meagre and rare. Young people have given us a mark by leaving, an unsatisfactory F.

The tunnel

At the time of finalising this text, news came in that the depot of the Higher Court in Podgorica had been broken into. The way this was done is reminiscent of scenes from Hollywood crime movies – in the very centre of the city, a tunnel was dug from the basement of a nearby residential building to the depot of the Higher Court. Various items were taken, including several pieces of firearms held as evidence in the case against the leader of one of Montenegro’s crime clans. The government fighting crime received a counterpunch, professional and “sufficiently deep”. Evidently, the courage of individuals, primarily prime minister Dritan Abazović and special state prosecutor Vladimir Novović (whose work has been publicly recognised and commended in the EC report), though valuable and important, is not enough. So far,
nothing has come of the necessary consensus between all political and social stakeholders in Montenegro regarding the fight against organised crime.
Even before the literal undermining, we had a constant non-passing mark, an unsatisfactory F for Montenegro! But after this, we have gone a step deeper, underground, or as the people of Podgorica would say, we’ve dug ourselves in!

Radomir Radević

 

Instead of the Context for Kosovo: A Cry for Help!

 

Ever since I’ve been politically aware, there has never been a single moment when I could travel to Kosovo without worry.

I was ten years old in the spring of 1981, a year after Tito’s death, when student protests broke out in Kosovo.

Today, Tito is remembered by the older generations, while those born decades later perceive him as a figure from science fiction movies (a good guy or a bad guy, but no longer real, just as the coexistence in freedom of Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo no longer seems possible).

This divided, toxic situation, compounded by frequent armed clashes, has been ongoing ever since I can remember.

Of course, responsibility resides on all sides, and in me, and in many living in both countries, but not once, not one single time did anyone in all these years have the political might or vision to say: “Enough. This can’t go on, let’s build peace.” Slowly, thoroughly, strategically, with sensitivity for the needs of all citizens. Democratically, with respect for people and their rights.

When we talk of war, its timeframe is a supremely political issue and is politically determined. Almost all Serbs in Serbia and in Kosovo will situate it in the period from March 1999 to the end of 2000.

For almost all Albanians, the war started in early 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999.

All those who define the duration of the war as starting in early 1998 and lasting to the end of 2000 are accused of being traitors, manipulators, mercenaries – by both sides.

Those born after these years are already graduating from university, starting families, and most often, in both countries – both in Serbia and in Kosovo – have put in motion plans to leave for the EU or the US, or have already left and are building lives abroad.

The generals of death cry: “The territories are ours!”

Life responds: “No one wants to live there anymore!”

From time to time, there is hope of moving forward, in negotiations, under pressure from the “international community” (whatever that represents and whatever its role over all these years, I won’t go into all that now). But such hopes are quickly dashed by the ensuing violence.

The most recent in a series of escalations in this ever unstable area took place on 26 May when Serbia’s president Aleksandar Vučić organised a meeting in support of himself in Belgrade and bused in tens of thousands of citizens from Serbia’s interior, but also from Kosovo. At that moment, his counterpart in the negotiations, Kosovo’s prime minister Albin Kurti, issued a decision that Albanian officials elected at previous elections, which were boycotted by Serbs (under pressure from Vučić), should take up positions in the administrations of municipalities with majority Serb populations.

There were physical and armed clashes of Serbs with KFOR forces and the Kosovo police. War seemed closer at that moment than any chance of peace.

Both sides have refused to implement what is foreseen in the agreement with the EU and the US, because in their populist-nationalist policy, this would be seen as a concession that could cost them their position in power: Kurti has refused to form the community of Serb municipalities and Vučić has refused to stop obstructing Kosovo’s membership in international organisations, including the United Nations.

Although, seen from afar, it all seemed like a staged performance to satisfy the nationalist sentiments of citizens in both countries, it concerned the lives and safety of ordinary people, living their everyday lives under constant tensions. And these tensions, as we could see, are easily raised to the level of armed clashes, but their normalisation is then much more difficult, time-consuming and complicated.

There have always been individuals and organisations that have advocated for peace, that have spoken up loud and clear, and often risking their lives, against war, and they should be remembered with the dignity they deserve. However, at the government level, any initiative for reconciliation, cooperation, even for normal life, is condemned as an act of high treason, and this is more or less true on both sides.

Despite this, there are numerous organisations and individuals, artists and activists working on projects to build peace and reconciliation, and they are equally shunned in both Serbia and Kosovo.

Since its founding as a regional peace organisation in 1997, the Centre for Nonviolent Action has also been working with people living in Kosovo.

So far, when it comes to concrete action in Kosovo, they have mostly met with the obstacle known as: “It’s not the right time.”

“It’s not the right time” for Kosovo in 1981. It’s not the right time in 1998… 1999… 2004… 2007… 2023…

Life passes, and it’s still not the right time.

At the start of this year, we decided to go on a study visit to Kosovo in order to meet with people working on peacebuilding there, in organisations or as individuals, artists or activists, so that we could figure out how we could work together on peacebuilding.

Guess what was the first response to our initiative?

“It’s not the right time.”

Fortunately, there were also those who said, “Of course you should come!”

This invitation gives us encouragement and hope that things are possible now, and not in some vague distant future.

The Centre for Nonviolent Action is planning its next study visit to Kosovo at the start of November 2023. We will not know whether it will take place until the very last minute – it’s possible that violence may break out again, and we may have to postpone the visit, because – see above.

Still, we will make the study trip soon, that’s for certain.

It’s always the right time for peace.

 

Katarina Milićević