Well, months have passed, the EU deadline has come and gone, and Mladic and Karadzic still remain at large. One has to wonder how much of a price the hardline nationalists in Serbia are willing to pay.
My fear is that the underlying issues in Bosnia will never be fully resolved. The status of the two-state division between the Croat-Muslim Federation and Republika Srpska might not be fully resolved; the current situation in Cyprus does not give one hope for the future. There is no guarantee that the younger generations on both sides of the dividing line will overcome the cycle of recrimination and guilt that the current situation perpetuates.
What are children in Bosnia learning today? In their schools, in their churches and mosques, in their living rooms, on their playgrounds? What is the mental image of their country Bosnian children are forming?
We know what happened to Bosnia. We know how the promise of cosmopolitan, secular, multi-cultural Bosnia was betrayed by the West and brutalized by extremists and fanatics. What will become of Bosnia? What will this nation look like in ten years? Fifty? A century?
1 comment:
Well it looks like Serbia is willing to accept the loss of Kosovo, they in any case no longer have the bargaining power to retain it. Maybe the Serbs up in R.S. can kick up some sort of fuss, but even there,the government in Belgrade has about as much use for them as the British government has for Loyalists in Northern Ireland. I think there's not quite the energy to start a war over anything, but the Serbian people seem willing to take a lot of hits to not hand over war criminals. Croatia hasn't had perfect cooperation by any means but they HAVE shown much more willingness to risk arresting people, same with the Bosnian Muslims. Some people from all three groups have surrendered voluntarily and been tried, but that has been the exception not the rule, again on all sides. I think non:cooperation is a matter of pride.
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