Why Bosnian Serbs have a new strongman unafraid to stir the horrors of the past.
On a sunlit winter afternoon, it is easy to imagine how life can be good in Bosnia. The pitched roofs of houses on the steep slopes of Sarajevo's valley look like stacks of snow-covered cuckoo clocks. Children skate on an outdoor rink at one of the venues built for the Winter Olympics of 1984.
Paramilitary police marched through the streets to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the declaration of Bosnian Serb independence in 1992, as Yugoslavia was breaking up and Bosnia was tumbling towards all-out war.Presiding over the parade was Milorad Dodik, welcomed by the Americans after the war as a "breath of fresh air", but now seen as a Serb strongman who does not hesitate to raise the ghosts of the past.
The current High Representative, Christian Schmidt, a former German minister, said Bosnia was gripped by the "greatest existential crisis of the post-war period". He said a threat by Dodik to turn his armed police into a revived Bosnian Serb army risked the prospect of a return to war. Mr Dodik has critics at home as well as abroad. One of the most vocal in the Bosnian Serb opposition is Vojin Mijatovic, vice-president of the Social Democratic Party, who accuses him of fuelling criminality and corruption.
A political ally of Mr Dodik, Ljubisa Cosic, the mayor of East Sarajevo, a suburb of the city that lies within Republika Srpksa, accepted that Serbs killed Bosniaks in Srebrenica, but insisted it was not genocide. "It's just like you still have the Third Reich and the Gestapo existing after the Holocaust. Everybody says 'let's negotiate with them'. Let's not negotiate with those that did the worst crimes against humanity in this country. The problem is that Serbs are trying to legalise what was gained by war crimes."
In Sarajevo, the leading Bosniak politician, Bakir Izetbegovic, said his Serb counterpart Milorad Dodik was an opportunist masquerading as a nationalist, but he was dangerous.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Why should we legislate against hurt feelings?'The risk, exacerbated in our age of identity politics, is that taking offence becomes incentivised and weaponised, with the law turned into a political football' | ✍️ jowilliams293
Read more »
Why I left Walthamstow to rent in rural locations around the UKThe pandemic prompted Alex Aldhous to swap London life for North Yorkshire and, when the time came, she decided she didn’t want to go back.
Read more »
WWE champion Bobby Lashley reveals why he turned down offer to sign with UFCBobby Lashley finally reached his pro wrestling potential in the past couple years and is now a two-time, reigning WWE champion. However, in MMA, despite an impressive 15-2 record, Lashley holds so…
Read more »
Why Jennifer Lopez Remains the Patron Saint of Romantic Comedies'The moviegoing public seemed to write Lopez off as being 'good enough' for romantic comedies but not much else—as if, somehow, romantic comedies required lesser gifts, when in truth the bar is quite high,' writes szacharek
Read more »
Why Shouldn't My Kids Have Their Mother's Last Name?'Tradition wasn’t a good enough reason to convince me that the children I grew in my own body shouldn’t have my name'
Read more »