April 05, 2024

The willingness of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina to forgive is difficult to explain, but has been reconfirmed many times. It is the result of the terrible suffering that they were forced to undergo, but also the result of hope that such pain will never again happen to anyone, the wish for reconciliation and lack of vindictiveness in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which manifests itself in numerous and frequently unexpected ways. It proves that these people have not lost their humanity, the only thing that, in addition to one’s life, was worth preserving during the war, but also the easiest to lose.

Author: Vesna Rajnović

The siege of Sarajevo started exactly thirty-two years ago from today. However, research shows that even after three decades and in spite of the simple and easy access to information, as many as 77% of citizens of the Republic of Serbia do not know that Sarajevo had ever been under siege. At the same time, the political leadership of Republika Srpska, the very same entity that was helped by the centre of power in Belgrade while keeping the citizens of Sarajevo under siege for 1425 days, and killed more than 14,000 persons, including 1601 children, using both artillery shells and snipers, is continuously and enthusiastically threatening to secede and start a new war. Both Republika Srpska and the Republic of Serbia deny genocide, both of them glorify war criminals as heroes, name schools and streets after them, put their hideous faces on murals, punish courageous individuals that fight against that and use tribe mythology to deceive and enrage people. In all of this, they are to a large extent supported by the Serb Orthodox Church, the champion and stronghold of Serb nationalism. However, not even the Western neighbours have a different attitude when it comes to their own war criminals. The President of the country, Zoran Milanović, is granting them clemency and war medals, and people are waiting for them and celebrating them as moral winners, once they serve the deserved prison sentence. As the academician Abdulah Sidran said, ”It is impossible to believe that I will not be slaughtered tomorrow by the one who refuses to admit that he slaughtered me yesterday”. Given such an atmosphere of general denial of crimes that were committed and even more insidious and systemic attempts to rewrite history and make it fade into oblivion, should Bosnia forgive?

Conventional wisdom says that it should not. How would it even be possible to forgive someone who claims that no crimes were committed and is not sorry about anything, and who pins medals to ”heroic” breasts of perpetrators of the worst atrocities, thereby clearly showing the willingness to commit the very same crimes? And nevertheless, Bosnia is a miracle, a true miracle of generosity and goodness.

The willingness of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina to forgive is difficult to explain, but has been reconfirmed many times. It is the result of the terrible suffering that they were forced to undergo, but also the result of hope that such pain will never again happen to anyone, the wish for reconciliation and lack of vindictiveness in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which manifests itself in numerous and frequently unexpected ways. It proves that these people have not lost their humanity, the only thing that, in addition to one’s life, was worth preserving during the war, but also the easiest to lose. When the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), led by an officer of the general staff, Slobodan Praljak, blew up the Old Bridge in Mostar in 1993, every person who loved Bosnia and Herzegovina and its hundreds of years old culture knew that much more than a simple structure connecting two river banks had been destroyed. As a result, any attempt of the order-giver to downplay the importance of this barbaric act by claiming that it was a mere military and strategic interest is futile.

However, even in the worst moments of destruction of their own identity, Bosnians have not sought revenge. A testimony confirming this is a documentary film ”Neka bude svjetlosti”, made by Dino Mustafić in Mostar in 1993 and 1994. This film preserves the words of the commander of city defense forces, Esad Humo: ”It may only be the way it has been so far, namely to live together and as equal. Mostar will not disappear, Mostar will continue to exist, and we will do our best to rebuild it the way it was before”. Even during the worst moments of suffering, this man did not curse the criminals who destroyed the city and killed many of his neighbours, he did not say that it should be ethnically cleansed from Bosnian Croats and Serbs, but rather that he wished a future ”the way it used to be before” and co-existence of all citizens of Mostar.

Shouldn’t the Croatian Radio and Television Service show this documentary together with films about the suffering that took place in Vukovar? There are no big differences between these two cities – both of them were destroyed by war criminals to such an extent that they became unrecognisable. And just as the Serb troops have not managed to destroy the spirit of citizens of Vukovar as a result of the savage destruction, the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) has not destroyed the faith of Mostar’s citizens into a better future without hatred and revenge as a result of shelling of the city.

Bosnian pacifism is still there and this is something that should be emphasized at a time when Europe is under the pressure of right-wing politics and is more and more visibly renouncing its own democratic values and, instead of standing up for human rights, pacifism and freedom of speech, supports islamophobia. However, this has been an ailment of Europe for such a long time. ”Islamophobia” is actually a euphemism, since it is not fear from Islam, but rather contempt for and hatred of Muslims. Their continuous mentioning in the context of terrorism and radicalisation is much more a means used as an attempt to justify intolerance, than an expression of fear. How many times has it been said that all those immigrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, you name it, are coming to our white, rich and Christian world to conquer it by imposing their values and that there is certainly a large number of terrorists hiding among them and waiting for the right occasion to act. In the eyes of the so-called international community, the Bosnian Muslims are a merely a fair-skinned variant of the very same Islamic ”threat”. If this were not the case, Milorad Dodik and others, who are denying genocide and have committed many corruption-related crimes, would have been imprisoned a long time ago, instead of sitting at a negotiating table.

Is there Bosniak nationalism? No people is immune to such a concept of their own nation, including also Bosniaks. However, if compared to the nationalism of Serbs and Croats, it becomes clear that neither its type nor intensity are the same. It resulted primarily as a reaction to the two previously named types, does not involve an ambition to conquer the neighbouring countries, but is rather focused on preserving its own territorial integrity and state sovereignty. It is therefore even more problematic when the leadership of Republika Srpska or the neighbouring countries lies about the Islamic threat at the heart of Christian Europe and covers up the truth that the threat for peace in the Balkans is not coming from Bosniaks, but rather from those that refuse to give up their war goals they have had over the past thirty years, although they have been defeated and convicted.

If we were honourable and fair, we would take down all flags of the war construct, the so-called Croatian Republic Herzeg-Bosnia, which was declared unconstitutional and under whose name terrible crimes were committed, apologise and ask for forgiveness. Instead of that, the flags are still fluttering. A hand has been extended. Do we understand that to forgive does not mean to forget, but rather give a chance to peace?