The generations living in Bosnia and Herzegovina today, who are the bearers of its development and progress, did not participate in the war.
Primarily, we refer to the young, working-age population in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
They want to live in a normal country, to live with dignity and freedom, in a state that serves them, not one that acts as their ruler or stepmother.
Free societies in Europe are built on the strong foundations of respecting human rights, equality of citizens in rights and obligations towards the state.
Every European country has its own specificities regarding its internal structure, as well as the specifics of its constitution. Each country creates laws unique to its circumstances. Australia has laws about kangaroos. France doesn’t, but it has special laws about wine. Belgium and Switzerland have special consociational laws. So do the UK, Catalonia, and Spain, each in their own way. Even the federal state of Germany has unique laws among its federal units.
Instead of becoming a strength, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s specificities have become its burden. Someone has refused to respect the specificities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its constitution. And its laws. For a country to democratize, it must first enter a phase of stability and peace. Peace is the fertile ground for the democratic process.
Who refused?
Due to the burden of the 1990s war, many young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina face challenges not only in daily communication but also in establishing basic relationships and connections.
The war and its narratives, along with the political elites’ unwillingness to leave the war behind, affect the daily lives of ordinary people. Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to exist in narratives of war accusations.
We are a society of an unfinished war. We need to become a society of a begun peace. On the day the war was declared over and peace was signed, some in Bosnia and Herzegovina signed the beginning of an unfinished war. A supposed peace, but in reality, a war over the interpretation of the war.
Since the end of the war, two spaces have been created in Bosnia and Herzegovina:
- The “Correct” Territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- The Bosnia and Herzegovina “Territory for Accusations.”
The “Correct” Territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina overlaps with the territory controlled by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war.
The “Territory for Accusations” consists of the territory of Republika Srpska, expanded with the territory of the former Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna (HRHB). Instead of maintaining territorial federalism like the Serbs, HRHB in 1994 accepted institutional federalism and thus made itself a permanent target of the “Correct” Territory.
The Croats accepted the European model of institutional federalism. Europe now punishes them for this by sending the message: “Be like the Serbs, and only like the Serbs.”
The young workforce living on the “Territory for Accusations” (RS + HRHB) did not participate in the war.
They do not bear the burden or guilt of the war. They are not interested in responsibility for crimes they did not commit.
Europe does not impose collective responsibility anywhere on its soil. Yet, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, collective responsibility is imposed, especially through public media, which we all pay for. We fund media that collectively demonize us.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) de-collectivized guilt and named individuals responsible for crimes.
Thus, the “Territory for Accusations” ceased to be a territory of collective blame.
The ICTY removed collective responsibility from the citizens of the “Territory for Accusations.”
At the same time, the ICTY maintained that there was no command responsibility for the “Correct” Territory.
As a result, a racial system of criminal responsibility was introduced in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One army bore no command responsibility, while others did.
Consequently, courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to convict individuals from the “Territory for Accusations” while avoiding imposing serious sentences on individuals from the “Correct” Territory.
From this, the following conclusions can be drawn:
- 30 years after Dayton, Bosnia and Herzegovina has not secured equality for its citizens. The “Correct” Territory houses privileged citizens, while the “Territory for Accusations” contains second-class citizens. Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot exist as a state with two collectives—one privileged and one oppressed. This creates a racial society, and Dayton was not designed to enforce a racial policy.
- The “Correct” Territory is home to state media, which demonize citizens from the “Territory for Accusations” while protecting the ideology of those from the “Correct” Territory. These are fascist media outlets. Dayton does not allow fascist policies in the media. Media in Bosnia and Herzegovina are obliged to objectively present the views of all citizens, not to represent the ideology of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina as humanitarian while demonizing the ideologies from the “Territory for Accusations” as wrong and fascist. Citizens from the “Territory for Accusations” should not be forced to fund public media that make their lives more difficult and restrict their freedom of thought and movement.
- Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina must be equal in their rights and obligations to the state. It is a fact that within the Federation itself, the Sarajevo Canton enjoys the status of a tax haven, while other cantons struggle to survive the tax year. Citizens outside the Sarajevo Canton should not be forced to fill its budget.
- The specific constitutional arrangement of Bosnia and Herzegovina guarantees that, alongside civic representation, there is also ethnic representation, which is an imperative in the current Constitution. This specificity can be changed democratically through Parliament and constitutional amendments, not through violence.
If this system were violated, it would be a patriotic act to oppose a regime that would deny any nation’s right to representation in institutions that belong to that nation, not civic institutions.
For example, if Croats and Serbs denied Bosniaks the right to legitimately fill the Bosniak Council in Republika Srpska, Bosniaks in Republika Srpska would have the full right to engage in civil disobedience against Republika Srpska’s institutions.
If Croats and Serbs denied Bosniaks the right to elect the Bosniak member of the Presidency, Bosniaks would not be obliged to respect the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its Presidency as the supreme executive body. For Bosniaks, the state would become a regime.
- Citizens living on the “Territory for Accusations” should not be forced into a position of perpetual blame and guilt inheritance. Just as a young citizen of Sarajevo is not responsible for the crimes of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina or for the fall of the Twin Towers, so too should a young citizen of Mostar or Banja Luka not be held responsible for crimes in Ahmići or Srebrenica. Those crimes were not their fight, and they are not their guilt. The names of the criminals are known.
- Living on the “Territory for Accusations” while accepting the position of a target is not the life guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. Such a life would be acceptance of a position of permanent humiliation. It would be an inhuman existence, contrary to Dayton.
- The state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its institutions are obliged to ensure a dignified life and equal access to rights and obligations for all citizens, regardless of whether they come from the “Territory for Accusations” or the “Correct” Territory.
- A state that insists on continuing to treat its citizens unequally would descend into clear fascism. Bosnia and Herzegovina is already one step into media, ideological, and judicial fascism. The next step would be its practical implementation on the streets.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina was founded on anti-fascist principles. A country that incorporates ideological fascism as a measure of individual rights would cease to be a democracy. Bosnia and Herzegovina must halt its descent into fascism.
- If Bosnia and Herzegovina’s institutions continue to impose fascism from the “Correct” Territory onto the “Territory for Accusations,” anti-fascists across the country must unite—both from the “Correct” and the “Territory for Accusations”—to put an end to such practices and narratives, or Bosnia and Herzegovina will not survive. The endless accusations and nationalism, propagated by media, judicial, and political Sarajevo, will completely turn the “Territory for Accusations” against the “Correct” Territory, leading to nothing.
And this country has had enough of “nothing.”
Bosnia and Herzegovina does not need more national heroes, grand words, great politicians, or esteemed spreaders of lofty ideas.
Bosnia and Herzegovina needs just a little: the removal of the current headhunters and soul traders from the stage.
What is needed is just a small, functioning state apparatus and a lot of open-air concerts.
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