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This month’s annual July 11 events in Potočari followed the same tired, indistinguishable, pattern of previous years. But there is a problem.
Every single Broadway show in history, regardless of how brilliant and successful it was and no matter how many runs it may have had, always inevitably came to an end. It is just as certain that the Srebrenica show, staged annually in Potočari, will sooner or later experience the same fate. The actors will not be around forever, the stage extras will find the gathering an increasing imposition as their lives develop in different directions, the audience will ultimately become annoyed and will be turned off by the sheer slickness of the monotonous performance. New facts will inevitably emerge to cast doubt on the credibility of the plot. Old tricks will become threadbare and useless. The show will attract a steadily decreasing amount of interest. At that point, the tent will have to fold and everyone will have to admit that the show is over. Is the Sarajevo leadership ready for that moment, and how will it explain it, when it comes, to the callously misled and manipulated Moslem people?
The unavoidable Mr. Haris Silajdzić was there this July 11th and for a change he did have something intelligent and accurate to say: “Admission is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength and courage.”* These are words with which we can all easily agree. Why, then, did Mr. Silajdzić return to Sarajevo the same day? Why did he not give life and conviction to his challenging words by staying overnight and coming to Bratunac on July 12 to attend the commemoration for Serbs from Srebrenica and the surrounding villages (specifically, Sase, Biljača and Zagoni) who were attacked and massacred by their Moslem neighbors from Srebrenica on July 12, 1992, and throughout the war?
Mr. Silajdzić could (and should) have given a dramatic personal example of “strength and courage” by apologizing to the assembled mothers, fathers, siblings, and other relatives of the Serbian victims in Bratunac. He had every reason to do that. Alongside Alija Izetbegović, he was a member of the collective BiH Presidency in Sarajevo at the time, and therefore as a member of the Supreme command of the armed forces which committed those crimes, he has deep personal reasons to take responsibility for the carnage and destruction in the surrounding Serbian villages, and to offer his heartfelt apologies to the survivors.
Needless to say, nothing of the sort did happen. After lecturing everyone, Mr. Silajdzić demonstrated his “strength and courage“ by hopping into his waiting limousine and returning to his office in Sarajevo.
Like most arrogant Balkan politicians, Mr. Silajdzić thinks that his writ will run forever. But he and his colleagues are utterly wrong. One of their fatal mistakes is to assume that as consummate „čaršija”** manipulators they can continue with their games forever, outsmarting everyone along the way. What they forget, to their own detriment, is that their local „čaršija”, where they arguably reign supreme, is but a small alley of the “global čaršija”. The latter is of infinite complexity and in many ways quite beyond their comprehension. In it, they are very junior players indeed, whose provincial perfidy will confer little advantage once those who are in charge of the “global village” decide that the game is over.
Mr. Silajdzić and his autistic Sarajevo „strategists“ have probably given no thought to this possibility, but it is quite likely that one July very soon the ambassador of their superpower mentors will find a convenient pretext to skip the 11th in Potočari altogether. After all, if he has bothered to make the trip in the past, it was for reasons of realpolitik and not because he was motivated by humanitarian considerations.*** What will the reaction in Sarajevo be when one day, having concluded that real politic now dictates a different approach, the ambassador not only skips July 11 altogether but instead shows up in Bratunac the following day?
Mr. Silajdzić and his fellow policy makers would be wise to consider all these hypotheticals in order to make sure that, when they do occur, they are not caught unprepared. One good insurance policy that they should take out now is to immediately open reasonable channels of communication and to mend fences with their Serbian neighbors because they are the only people certain to be left after the foreign sponsors’ departure.
Srebrenica must become what it is really meant to be, a place of common grief for all of its inhabitants over the human cataclysm which occurred there between 1992 and 1995, and which has devastated both communities. Allah is a God of justice and compassion, not a deity who will long tolerate his purported servitors to mock the martyrdom of his creatures by cynically turning its remembrance into a cheap political carnival.**** He who has ears, let him hear.*****
* Glas Javnosti (Belgrade), July 12, 2009 ** The market area of Oriental towns [souk, in Arabic] where business is transacted and where notables meet to discuss important matters. *** It was made very plain by their strategic theorists that support for Bosnian Moslems is meant to counterbalance an unfavorable impression in the Moslem world, i.e. it is not motivated by any particular attachment to the Moslems of Bosnia. Strategic interests are known to change. **** Holy Kúran, sura Al-Haqqa, 9-10 ***** The Gospel according to Mark, 4:9 |
