From: malenovi@plains.NoDak.edu (Nikola V. Malenovic )
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: War Against Bosnia (VREME NDA 13.Apr 1992)
Date: 13 Apr 92 14:35:48 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.16734
Organization: North Dakota State University, Fargo


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                      No. 29, April 13 1992.
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    War Against Bosnia
    ------------------


           War  came to  Bosnia  with  its independence.  The March
           barricades in Sarajevo were  just a dress rehearsal, the
           incidents in front of the  "Holiday Inn" the premiere of
           a long  rehearsed play about  blowing Bosnia to  pieces.
           The  leading  actors  met   all  the  expectations:  SDS
           (Serbian Democratic  Party) has fRAMed  its picture, the
           Croatian side  has dug-in its positions,  JNA is finding
           it difficult to choose between General Adzic's hard-line
           and  General  Kukanjac's  more  realistic attitudes, SDA
           (Party  of Democratic  Action) is  regrouping with fatal
                      delay, and the people are desperate

    At the time of writing (April  10, late afternoon), the situation in B&H
    is as follows: the asylum in Domanovici, the biggest in Herzegovina, has
    been left without food, drugs and staff for days; General Sead Fetahagic
    of  the  Second  Army  District  (Sarajevo)  politely  conveyed the SDS'
    ultimatum that  the city will be  shelled if the people  caught shooting
    from the  "Holiday Inn" are not  released; Hanka Paldum, a  folk singer,
    implored  in front  of YUTEL  TV cameras  that shooting  at her  Serbian
    neighbours stop;  on Friday in  Mostar civilians are  being shot at  and
    there are  a few wounded  children (a 13  and a 4  year old); the Zenica
    steel  mill is  operating at  its minimum  maintenance level; the Mostar
    aluminum plant is facing a  catastrophe: if the technological process is
    not  discontinued  properly,  which  demands  several  weeks, there is a
    danger of  explosion that would destroy  the Neretva valley and  half of
    the Adriatic coast.

    The  fate of  B&H can  be understood  only by  means of  a many  faceted
    approach: political, military, anthropological, religious and economic.

    The Republic of  Bosnia and Herzegovina, which ceased  to be "socialist"
    from Thursday  (too late, maybe), has  no place on the  political map of
    the  Balkans  drawn  in  Belgrade  and  Zagreb.  Mr.  Tudjman  has  been
    mentioning "the  Croatian flag on  Mt. Romania" for  quite a while,  Mr.
    Paraga dreams of "a frontier on the Drina river and in Zemun (a Belgrade
    suburb)", Mr. Karadzic has been slowly building his state as an integral
    part of the future state of "all  the Serbs of the world", to eventually
    proclaim  it  last  week;  the  B&H  citizens  were  not asked for their
    opinion;  the  outcome  of  the  first  multiparty  (i.e. multinational)
    elections  divided them  into Serbs,  Croats, Moslems  and "others". The
    fact that the  division doesn't follow the history and  real life of B&H
    doesn't bother anyone - except the people.

    With the advent of national madness in the "decadent" Yugoslavia, Bosnia
    and Herzegovina became a superfluous republic. Mr. Izetbegovic's SDA has
    thus been  reduced to a religion  flavored party - like  it or not. This
    has opened up  the possibility of further political  abuse: by carefully
    evading  the recognition  of Moslems  as a  nation, Serbian  ideologists
    began to jabber about "Islamic fundamentalism"  as a logical part of the
    international conspiracy against the Serbs.

    From a practical and political stand-point, the question is what kind of
    agreement  Milosevic and  Tudjman  reached  in Karadjordjevo,  claim our
    correspondents  from  Sarajevo.  If  they  agreed  to  split B&H between
    themselves, then  someone has been  cheated: the Croatian  population of
    Bosnia and especially Herzegovina  is obviously siding with Izetbegovic,
    by recognizing his government and its new Territorial Defense structure.
    Up to now,  the Croats from Western Herzegovina  have carefully selected
    military targets  around Mostar, although they've  hit a Serbian village
    as well. In the Livno,  Kupres and Tomislavgrad regions, however, Croats
    are fighting fiercely to establish a physical connection between Western
    Herzegovina  and  the  Croatian  enclaves  in  central  Bosnia (Bugojno,
    Travnik).

    The Serbian side, however, is directly destroying the very tissue of the
    Republic  of B&H,  in  accordance  with Milosevic's  strategy previously
    implemented in Croatia.  Dr. Karadzic has claimed for  days that outside
    the  Serbian Republic  of B&H  "he recognizes  no authority", leaving no
    hope for the  survival of the present legally  elected government. After
    the incidents  from April 5-9 and  the 30 dead citizens  of Sarajevo, of
    all nationalities, both  sexes and all ages, Mr.  Karadzic will dare not
    show his  face in the  city streets. He  is now playing  double or quits
    (for he  knows that Sarajevo is  lost to the SDS  forever), vindictively
    shelling  the  Hum  TV  transmitter,  the  "Oslobodjenje"  building  and
    everything that  moves. This was to  be expected: Karadzic has  for days
    been accusing TV Sarajevo of  "war-mongering", even though the following
    message has  been displayed for hours  on the screens: "Peoples  of B&H,
    unite  against the  war. Stop  shooting!". In  an attempt  not to offend
    anyone, Sarajevo  TV has censored reliable  information, avoiding naming
    the aggressor located in the  neighboring hills, although everybody knew
    that  these  were   SDS  men;  they  are  now   beginning  to  feel  the
    consequences.

    Nobody has  learned a single  lesson from the  war in Croatia,  Karadzic
    least of all, although he had before  him the example of Milan Babic. He
    has repeated every  single mistake Babic made, only this  time in a much
    more  dangerous  setting:  where  Babic  had  only  Croats  against him,
    Karadzic has Croats  and Moslems; where Babic was  dealing with a rather
    divided population, Karadzic  is trying to estrange a  much more compact
    population; where the  Army openly backed Babic, Karadzic  still has had
    no  adequate  support  and  his  hope  that  Croatia  will  be  repeated
    throughout B&H was unfulfilled.

    The  RAM Plan,  which has  been diligently  implemented for  more than a
    year,  consisted of  organizing, arming  and supplying  a parallel power
    structure amongst  the Serbs in  B&H, aiming at  the unification of  the
    entire  "Serbianhood". The  assessment SDS  made last  summer was clear:
    "Conflicts are inevitable, for this  is a historic opportunity to fulfil
    the  century long  dream of  a common  state for  all Serbs".  It was  a
    splendid idea, but had a single flaw  - it wasn't feasible. Thank to Mr.
    Kertes' (the Socialist Party of Serbia MP), Serbs in B&H have been fully
    armed,  with  the  consent  and  support  of  JNA,  and  the Serbian and
    Montenegrin  governments. They  have been  provided with  food and  fuel
    supplies, and thus given a chance  for creating a black market after the
    Serbian Government imposed an economic blockade on B&H.

    Sniper shots in Sarajevo marked the absolute moral defeat of the SDS and
    Mr. Karadzic. His vague stories about the "green berets" didn't convince
    anyone, since further attacks on Sarajevo clearly showed who is shooting
    and why. Thus Mr. Karadzic has once  and for all lost the support of the
    Sarajevo Serbs. They  are on guard in front of  their houses, along with
    their Croatian and Moslem neighbors, mostly unarmed.

    Snipers are the  biggest threat in Sarajevo and  Mostar. The strategy is
    clear: to  create anarchy. Mostar  is especially vulnerable  for several
    reasons:  the  city  has  become  a  hostage  between  two  paramilitary
    formations -  from Eastern and Western  Herzegovina - and JNA,  which is
    threatening to retaliate by hitting civilian targets every time it loses
    its temper.  Mostar has no choice:  a year ago, the  Territorial Defense
    weapons were confiscated and transported  to Kalinovik; the police dares
    not show its face outside the Security Center, and the people are frozen
    in  fear. As  in the  previous -   Croatian -  case, the  SDS based  its
    strategy  on the  (more or  less) justified  hypothesis that  the JNA is
    eager to kill all those who  are not Serbs, for Karadzic's sake. Another
    similarity between  Karadzic and Babic  becomes evident here:  both have
    passed  through a  phase in  which they  despised the  JNA as a "traitor
    army". Mr. Babic  was doing that last spring, and  Mr. Karadzic is doing
    it now.  The JNA served Mr.  Babic well. Mr. Karadzic  will have to wait
    for a while.  The merits for that waiting also  go to Alija Izetbegovic:
    he has continuously tried to make the JNA adopt a straightforward policy
    - whether  it will  protect the  population from  the aggressor  or not;
    whether or not it will disarm the paramilitary formations and defend the
    constitutional order, even though it i s not a communist one.

    Tudjman and Milosevic  are tearing B&H to pieces,  while the Army stands
    by and watches, evading any kind of engagement.

    Bosnia  and Herzegovina  are left  alone with  their own  resources. The
    republic was recognized by many countries, and even by the USA (which by
    doing  so is  making a  grand entrance  into the  chaos of  the Yugoslav
    crisis).  Practically  speaking,  it  means  nothing.  The  republic  is
    confined to  its own resources,  while different countries  extend their
    hypocritical  sympathy. The  Army is   slowly giving  in to  inertia and
    opening the final  chapter of its own downfall:  it is gradually leaving
    Mostar, by bombing  its own armament factories in  Citluk. B&H is slowly
    turning  into the  final act  of the  JNA drama.  The disintegration  of
    industrial  plants  in  Vitez  (explosives),  Travnik(tanks  and  guns),
    Sarajevo  (motors and  transmission), Konjic  and Gorazde  (ammunition),
    Tuzla (chemicals), etc. is just a question of time. The crumbling of JNA
    in B&H could turn out to be a very ugly and bloody one.

    What  is  Bosnia  left  with?  A  dispersed  structure of reserve police
    forces,  once the  strongest  in  Yugoslavia; a  reorganized Territorial
    Defense wearing new  insignia (the B&H coat of  arms), supposed to bring
    all armed groups under a single command  by April 15. It also has at its
    disposal an unspecified quantity of  weaponry, some imported through the
    port of Ploce and distributed  throughout Eastern Bosnia thanks to Alija
    Delimustafic,  some saved  from  the  Army's "exempting"  of Territorial
    Defense armament,  following the elections which  the communists did not
    win, some from the stocks of  the ex-League of Communists of B&H (around
    100,000 rifles).

    The  B&H  Ministry  of  the  Interior  at  present  represents  the only
    organized force in  the republic. It is not clear  though who is telling
    the truth: the Interior Ministry or  the B&H Serbs Ministry of Interior,
    for both claim that 90% of  Serbian policemen are with them. Some police
    officials  - by  pointing at  the frightening  increase of robberies and
    crime  in  such  circumstances  -  are  imploring,  above  all,  for the
    maintenance of the professional and ethical standards of the trade.

    A woman from Bistrik, a suburb of Sarajevo says: " What we have built in
    the course of our entire lives,  they have destroyed in a single night".
    A convict has probably given the best description of the shape of things
    in Sarajevo and the Republic: "I went home for Bairam. When I managed to
    return to jail on time and saw how well we Serbs, Moslems and Croats are
    getting along, I figured out that we  were better off in jail that those
    outside. I  even thought of bringing  my wife and kids  here with me, to
    jail".

    As  the last  lines of  this article  are being  written, a statement by
    Alija Izetbegovic  is just coming in:  "It is highly unlikely  that this
    government will  be able to  save both Bosnia  and Herzegovina, but  the
    people can do it".
                                                                 Milos Vasic
                                                           Zehrudin Isakovic
                                                                Milan Sutalo
                                                                 Mensur Camo
                                                                 Tanja Topic


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                      No. 29, April 13 1992.
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