From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: The remarkable tolerance of Bosnia-Herzegovina
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 08:15:23 GMT

/** wri.news: 513.0 **/
** Topic: The remarkable tolerance of BiH **
** Written  5:18 pm  Sep 30, 1992 by gn:peacenews in cdp:wri.news **
THE REMARKABLE TOLERANCE OF BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

The majority of marriages now taking place in Sarajevo are mixed
marriages. In an atmosphere of war, ethnic cleansing, and open
hostility to the "other", the persistent tolerance of most Bosnians is
remarkable. JOHN BLOSS wrote about the Yugoslav Peace Caravan in the
November 1991 _Peace News_. He has since worked in Britain and in
former-Yugoslavia in an effort to increase awareness and to give
support to peace and aid workers -- from teaching meditation to setting
up links with official bodies such as UNPROFOR and UNHCR. On his return
from Bosnia in September this year, he talked with _Peace News_ and WRI
staff about what he had seen.

I started by going to Split with the intention of going to Sarajevo.
I ended up staying with journalists -- I'd been interested in the role
of journalists from the beginning ... influencing public perceptions
of what had been happening ... in a sense creating reality because of
their influence on actions, the whole business about just concentrating
on conflict, for example. So being with the press was very interesting
in getting a sense of how they worked, individually and as part of an
organisation. They were great, they actually accepted me at a personal
level in friendship.

I wanted to get to Sarajevo but I didn't have the resources -- I didn't
have a car, and didn't have a great deal of money. So I was hanging out
with the journalists, hoping for a lift. Then the call came for them
to go to Mostar to visit the mass graves (see picture).

In Split, I interviewed the head of UNHCR -- Chris Thorne, a really
good guy, african american, radical politics in the '60s and so on. We
got on like a house on fire, then it emerged that we both practised
Buddhism. I was talking about my own critique of the intervention
effort and how in an engaged way more could happen along the lines of
my letter (September _Peace News_), proposing counter-propaganda
leaflet bombing. What came out of our discussion was that if a peace
group actually wanted to put a couple of trucks into the field, then
he'd actually be really delighted.

He said it would be much better to actually go there with a truck and
fill it up there -- buy the stuff in Croatia and be of some benefit to
the local economy.

A team based in meditative practice of peace, teaching mediation and
relaxation as I had been doing could practise all the time it was on
the road. In general I was surprised how many people were open to the
ideas in my letter. I didn't expect it to be taken seriously by so many
people. 

In Split I picked up a lot of mail to take to Sarajevo. If you go to
Bosnia, even by doing this you're doing enough. Set yourself up as a
mail courier. I brought a lot of stuff back. Everybody I brought
letters for then sent something back. 

*** Making it up on the hop

Journalists write to a brief -- they write half their stories before
they start then they go and find the information to fit -- which
doesn't mean that they'd reject information that didn't -- but the
whole tone of the experience is changed. For example, when I was in
Bihac one of the army officers was very critical of the press and very
welcoming to me as somoene who came as a brother. All the press want
to see, he said, was legs chopped off, atrocities and so forth.

Editorial policy isn't even clear, much of it is made on the hop -- so
they don't know the mood -- they don't how much they can allow the
emotional, the so called subjective and therefore a whole area gets
missed out. Pressfolk don't seem to have much autonomy.

*** Inching towards Sarajevo

The French guy who was running the convoys got me a lift with these
guys, boozy macho Muslims who were actually terrific. One of them was
called Mad Max, and the other one I called Rock'n'Roll. They thought
it was all hilarious. So I had this long, long drive with these
crazies. Their mantra was "pivo, pivo" ("beer, beer").

The lorry went as far as Kiseljak [50km from Sarajevo, in Croatian-held
territory]. There was the press office which would arrange a complete
service -- they'd get you to Sarajevo for 8000 dinar -- this service
amounted to a piece of paper and a lift to the next checkpoint, and
then you're on your own -- as I discovered. I got that far, sat around
in this little village full of military; I felt like a cowboy out of
the wild west. Then I was told to go back, I didn't know what to do so
I started to walk back. I then got picked up by the police who said
"no, you don't have to go back, come on -- we'll take you" Very
difficult to tell if they were Serbian or Croatian police -- this was
just outside of Ilidja, only a few kilometres from Sarajevo. Going
through Serbian held territory is a very strange experience. In my
experience regarding the levels of paranoia, unfriendliness and
official security, on the whole Serbians top the list, then Croatians,
then the Bosnians where there is hardly any notion of security measures
at all. You can go through drawers at military offices, they're not in
the least bit fussed. It's a totally different world. 

*** The "Mussulman" myth

I spoke to a lot of young Serbs who actually told me about how the
Mussulmans were fanatics, how they were the enemy. These weren't
chetniks but ordinary young Serbs who obviously been sold a lot of
propaganda -- which I knew not to be true, from my experience. Or at
least I came to see that they weren't true. But they believed this.

You could tell quite often, though, that they weren't quite convinced
by what they were saying. There was a lot of guilt, a lot of shame --
and because of that, people weren't facing it, they were in a trap. 

You kill somebody, then you feel bad about it so you get drunk <197>
then it's easier to kill. You can see how that whole pattern develops.A
lot of Serbian people -- good Serbian people -- are actually trapped.
How are they going to get out of this, who will they turn to? What do
they do -- walk across the lines? Where do they go? The figures for
young Serbs who have opted out and gone "missing" are very, very high.

Kiseljak, 50km from Sarajevo, is a little outpost in Croatian-held
territory. It turns out to be the place where the Serbs and the Croats
get together. Even the police chief of Kiseljak was there. They drink
together, exchange information. But it's not a friendship based on
anything positive. It's a friendship based on exploiting the Bosnians
and carving up their territory. They all have stories about the
Mussulmen, the fanatics, which I was to see were not true.

There were 2-3 coaches with refugees at the village. There was supposed
to be a refugee swap. As far as we know, they were being brought to the
handover point every day but nothing every happened. I got the
impression that the army, the Serbs and Croats couldn't care; they're
mesmerised and desensitised by power.

It would be interesting to look into the level of psychological
warfare, the level of panic. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but as in
Nazi Germany the psychological impact of what was being done seems to
have been carefully calculated.

Driving through Krajina, mile after mile of part-destroyed ethnically
cleansed houses, the same dark forbidding atmosphere as I felt in
occupied Baranja (Croatia, on an earlier visit). You _don't stop_ to
take photos or talk to people. Republics of shame.

*** Lost on the way to Sniper Alley

Two photojournalists -- Thomas Haley (SIPA) and Marlene Daniels --
offered me a lift into Sarajevo. By the time we got to Ilidja, it was
dark so we stayed in this terrible totalitarian baroque hotel -- the
Hotel Belgrade -- with 6 trillion rooms and no guests. There was
shelling going on and it wasn't very pleasant. The next day we set off
in Marlene's VW Golf -- Marlene (Gamma) was a good and brave companion
for nearly two weeks. We got directions to go along Sniper Alley. We
took the wrong road and ended up in a minefield. There was a bit of
panic, we were just sitting there totally exposed. So we turned back -
- eventually got on the right road and went down Sniper Alley. We go
to the Holiday Inn, I've got hardly any money so I'm in the hotel as
a stowaway in Tom and Marlene's room.

After I'd been there about an hour, we're off again. Down Sniper Alley
again. We eventually get out and enter this police station. Hold on,
I think, this looks familiar. It's just like that other police station
in Ilidja -- terrible place, with that dreadful atmosphere you get in
Serb-controlled areas. They even had a machine gun in the same place
... then I realised that it was the same place. I'd taken over a week
to get to Sarajevo, I'm there for half an hour, then ten minutes later
I'm out again ... That's what comes of just going with the flow.

*** The onset of winter <R>will bring new catastrophe<|><193>

I spent a lot of time with Goran Djapic and Ibrahim Spahic of the
International Peace Centre, now embarking on its "Chrisis" campaign.
We talked a lot on tape and film, Ibro making direct appeals to camera.
What they're saying is that if they don't get help soon, the onset of
winter will bring catastrophe. There's stuff they're going to run out
of very soon<|><193>

In the hospital in Sarajevo with I talked with the head of health and
welfare for the whole of Bosnia. I went to the graveyard, as everyone
goes. I went to the old town (bascarsija) -- the saddest moment was to
go there and remember a year ago, socialising and having a good time
with Muslim friends. And now it's smashed and empty <197> not smashed
to bits, but deserted. I looked up across the town into the hills and
I wanted to do something -- not pick up a gun but something equally
decisive.

THE HORROR OF MOSTAR

@leadpar = <195>We headed to Mostar as they were uncovering the mass
graves from the 13 June massacre which had just been discovered. I had my
video camera and filmed the building where the bodies were laid out, the
bizarre opera that went on there. The bodies had been in the ground for
some time -- the smell is something I'll remember for the rest of my
life.
What was most affecting was when one mother came to see her son, there
was this sodden mess in the coffin -- she collapsed. As press I was very
non-professional and didn't take photographs of her. I didn't want to
impose.

It's interesting to watch the playback of some of this film, because it's
the worst film I've ever shot. It was eerie ... The professional press
were imposing themselves all the time. I was aware that I was using the
camera to protect myself, distance myself a little bit, trying to be
clinical ... I'm sure they got much better film than I did. It got to all
of us.

There were altogether 200 in three pits near Mostar. They disappeared in
April. There were 89 bodies in the vent I visited. They were buried in a
rubbish tip at Ubarac. Another grave was being excavated, but they were
being shelled by the Serbs. According to the Croats, 4500 are still
unaccounted for.

It was 37 degrees C -- the smell was horrid. We had to cover our faces
with towels. Mortuary workers were taking watches and other personal
things to identify the bodies.  Many of them had multiple stab wounds.
The response from the Serbian authorities was that these mutilations were
manufactured. 

Among the police officers when I visited were some Croats from HoS [the
extreme-right militia]. One HoS officer gave the Nazi salute as we left.
I got the distinct impression that if the situation were different people
like that would themselves be committing atrocities. In scale, however,
the atrocities actually committed by the Croats are far less than those
by the Chetniks.



A LONG WAY FROM RELIGIOUS FANATICISM

##The Bosnian Muslims are very receptive. I didn't hear one expression of
hatred. I heard about the betrayal from the outside world that they had
been misunderstood, represented as Muslim fanatics and so on, but I never
heard an expression of hatred towards the Serbs. They were analysing,
pointing out the gun law and the conditions that led to the Serbian
attack, but in a skilful way, rather like a Buddhist teacher might.

Visiting one big refugee camp, looking at the stories of Islamic
influence in the camps, we found that in this big camp, only a very small
percentage -- not even 1 per cent -- even joined in the prayers.

Robert Fisk wrote in the _Independent_ that Serbs had been discriminated
against by Muslims. I'm not questioning the honesty of his report but his
experience and information was obviously different to mine. I met _a lot_
of Muslims and can only suggest that the examples he cites are the
exception, not at all the rule.

I interviewed some academic people, and the head of the Muslim community
for the whole of former-Yugoslavia -- the _reis-ul-ulema_ Jakub
el-Selimovski. He spoke very much of the moderate nature of Bosnia and
the great desire in the past to live with all these communities, what a
strong tradition that was, and how in the future he wanted to work with
the same people. The Orthodox Church has apparently opted out of the
historic cooperation between the communities, but he talks of this as a
misfortune and is obviously very receptive to continuing that tradition.

He is aware that there has been anti-Islamic propaganda and distortions
of what the Muslim community represents. I heard stories of all this
illicit money which was coming from the Islamic world into Bosnia. The
reis-ul-ulema's residence, which is under attack all the time, is guarded
by these ordinary guys drinking beer and smoking (not that this is a good
thing, but it's hardly fundamentalist behaviour). "We're European
Muslims" he kept saying. It's a different tradition.

He made an appeal to the world community and the Islamic community for
help -- if I can be personal here, Europe needs these people. If we can't
learn from them, then it's our loss. This is the moderating influence,
the civilising influence in the Balkans ... and in Europe.

It's remarkable that people who have suffered so much remain without
hate, open, kind, optimistic.

Amazing qualities -- fortitude, courage ... but they're not brilliant
soldiers. In the sense of military security, they don't hate enough maybe
to kill efficiently. When I spoke to people they would say "peace will
prevail" and believed that to be the case. Even if this conflict
continues, they believe that their spirit will prevail.

It cannot die easily, any more than the gun culture and macho culture
will go away quickly. Both of them have been going along for a very long
while. One's got to sympathise with the Serbian people, what they have
grown up with and what they have suffered in the past. You can see how
these distortions have arisen. Somehow they will have to face what this
culture has actually cost them. A young guy in Bihac said to me "my
Serbian friends, when they turned 9 or something, they were given a gun.
We got given chocolate."

One memory I hold is of Aladdin, a Bosnian in Bosanska Krupa, sitting
with his family at the front line where nobody had been been for two
weeks due to constant shelling of the only road in. We got fired at on
the road out -- the longest three minute drive of my life. He said with
a resigned smile, "we are all waiting" -- death or liberation?

The Bosnians remind me of the Tibetans, another community of spiritual
wealth abandoned to hatred and ignorance. The world needs these people;
their goodness is the hope of humanity. 

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* Reprinted from Peace News 2359 (October 1992).                  *
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