14 February 2014
An open letter to the International Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina
For more than two decades, the international political community has viewed, interpreted, and acted upon the political landscape in Bosnia and Herzegovina almost exclusively through an ethnic lens – despite careful academic scholarship, which consistently warned against such over-simplifications and dangerous pandering to local ethno-nationalist elites. The war, and the peace that has ensued, both overseen (“aided and abetted,” to use the ICTY language) by international observers, have only emboldened the local ethno-nationalist partitocracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which – shielded by fears of new wars and new violence – proceeded to enrich itself in the country with the official youth unemployment rate of 57 percent.
That the epicenter of the recent protests is Tuzla, a working class city that also bucked the ethno-nationalist trend during the war is, thus, not a coincidence. The protests also reflect deep disappointment with the Social Democratic Party, the winner of the 2010 elections, which has since squandered its political capital by acting in a way that is indistinguishable from the ethno-nationalist parties. As a result, the protests are expressing despair over the lack of political alternatives and a sense that no political party is capable of addressing legitimate socio-economic grievances.
The first few days of protests were marred by violence, police repression, but also sustained media and political spin. The protesters were criminalized, their demands ridiculed, politicized and/or re-appropriated, and conspiracy theories – with an expected ethnic slant – proliferated. The results of the initial protests were, nonetheless, remarkable. The protests have spread throughout the Bosnian Federation and led to resignations of local politicians in a number of cantons and municipalities. Citizens Assemblies are being created in city after city, and town after town. The protestors’ demands, although slightly different from one community to another, focus on job opportunities, pensions, health benefits, confiscation of illegally obtained property and formation of non-ethnic, and in some cases, technocratic governments. None of them are basing any claims on ethnicity, religion, or any of the other divisions that characterize BH in the stubborn international stereotype of it.
Thus far, the response of the international community to the Bosnian uprisings has been muted, confused and inept. The current High Representative, Valentin Inzko, noted in an interview for the Austrian daily Kurier that “if the situation escalates, we might have to think about EU-troops” (“Wenn die Lage eskaliert, werden wir eventuell an EU-Truppen denken müssen.”). While he retracted the statement later on, unfortunate parallels with the Hapsburg occupation of Bosnia (1878-1914) had already been made and the damage done. Demands for Inzko’s resignation have been added to the list of protestors’ requests. EU politicians – from Catherine Ashton to Carl Bildt,- have issued vague statements defending the rights of citizens to assemble, calling for transparent negotiations between protestors and government representatives, and condemning violence. Given the non-committal statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, it is likely that the U.S. will let Europeans handle the protests and any possible political fallout from them.
This, however, is not the moment to either disengage or intervene bluntly. This is the time to reflect and act upon the years of accumulated economic injustices and neglected inequalities, acknowledging at last that they are not all based on ethnicity. Thus, as academics and scholars of the region, we call upon the representatives of the international community to say their good-byes to the kleptocratic ethno-nationalist elites and the institutions they have helped create. Neighboring countries – who were key instigators of the war – must also be advised to refrain from interfering in Bosnia and Herzegovina at a time when the ethnocracies they sustain are facing major challenges from below. We ask of the international community to recognize the civic plenums and assemblies as legitimate expressions of Bosnian citizens’ political will, which do not seek to replace but to enhance democracy. Elections are not the only democratic mode of political practice. After repeatedly calling on Bosnians to take the fate of their country into their own hands, the international community should now extend their support to protestors and seriously consider their demands.
In spring of 1992, Bosnian citizens staged in Sarajevo the largest demonstrations ever against all nationalist parties. They were silenced by snipers, and their voices, from that point on, ignored by the international community. This time, the world should listen.
Signatures:
Aida A. Hozić, University of Florida, United States
Florian Bieber, University of Graz, Austria
Eric Gordy, University College London, United Kingdom
Chip Gagnon, Ithaca College, United States
Eldar Sarajlić, Central European University, Hungary
Tanya Domi, Columbia University, United States
Tanja Petrović, Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Slovenia
Ana Dević, Fatih University, Turkey
András Bozóki, Central European University, Hungary
Jo Shaw, Edinburgh University, Scotland/United Kingdom
Jasmin Mujanović, York University, Canada
Valerie Bunce, Cornell University, United States
Konstantin Kilibarda, York University, Canada
Aleksandra Miličević, University of North Florida, United States
Emel Akcali, Central European University, Hungary
Olimpija Hristova Zaevska, Balkan Institute for Faith and Culture, Macedonia
Jana Baćević, Aarhus University, Denmark
Jelena Vasiljević, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Michael Bernhard, University of Florida, United States
Tea Temim, NASA/University of Maryland, United States
Jasmina Opardija-Susnjar, University of Fribourg, Germany
Julianne Funk, Centre for Research on Peace and Development, KU Leuven, Belgium
Hanns Schneider, former researcher at University of Jena, Germany
William Risch, Georgia College, United States
Kiril Avramov, New Bulgarian University in Sofia, Bulgaria
Tom Junes, German Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland
Tibor T. Meszmann, Working Group on Public Sociology “Helyzet” Budapest, Hungary
Béla Greskovits, Central European University, Hungary
Hilde Katrine Haug, University of Oslo, Norway and Harriman Institute, Columbia University
Armina Galijaš, University of Graz, Austria
Zoltan Dujisin, Columbia University, United States
Heleen Touquet, University of Leuven, Belgium
Amila Buturović, York University, Canada
Margareta Kern, artist, London, United Kingdom
Catherine Baker, University of Hull, United Kingdom
Adriana Zaharijević, University of Belgrade
Maja Lovrenović, VU Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Marko Prelec, Balkans Policy Research Group, Pristina, Kosovo
Claudiu Tufiș, University of Bucharest, Romania
Gal Kirn, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany
Keziah Conrad, University of California, Los Angeles, United States
Jarrett Blaustein, Aberystwyth University, United Kingdom
Igor Štiks, University of Edinburgh, Scotland/United Kingdom
Rossen Djagalov, Koç University, Turkey
Paul Stubbs, Institute for Economics, Zagreb, Croatia
Davor Marko, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Ljubica Spaskovska, University of Exeter, United Kingdom
Christian Axboe Nielsen, Aarhus University
Andrej Grubačić, California Institute of Integral Studies, United States
Wendy Bracewell, University College London, United Kingdom
Zhidas Daskalovski, University of Bitola, Macedonia
Nicole Lindstrom, University of York, United Kingdom
Hristina Cipusheva, South East European University, Republic of Macedonia
Marina Antić, University of Pittsburgh, United States
Alen Kristić, University of Graz, Austria
Julija Sardelić, University of Edinburgh, Scotland/United Kingdom
Lara J. Nettelfield, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom
Ivana Krstanović, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo
Danijela Majstorović, University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Zoran Vučkovac, University of Alberta, Canada
Elissa Helms, Central European University, Hungary
Harun, Buljina, Columbia University, United States
Igor Cvejić, Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju Beograd, Serbia
Slavoj Žižek, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, United Kingdom
Nataša Bek, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia
Sladjana Lazić, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Katarina Peović Vuković, Faculty of Philosophy, Rijeka, Croatia
Artan Sadiku, Institute of social sciences and humanities – Skopje, Macedonia
Peter Vermeersch, University of Leuven, Belgium
Roland Schmidt, Central European University, Hungary
Spyros A. Sofos, CMES, Lund University, Sweden
Vedran Horvat, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Croatia
Franjo Ninic, University of Muenster, Germany
Adam Fagan, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
Soeren Keil, Canterbury Christ Church University, United Kingdom
Esad Boskailo, University of Arizona, United States
Biljana Đorđević, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade
Amra Pandžo, Udruženje MALI KORACI Sarajevo
Malte Frye, University of Muenster, Germany
Vanja Lastro, Rice University Houston, United States
Srđan Dvornik, independent analyst and consultant, Zagreb, Croatia
Goran Ilik, University of Bitola, Macedonia
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