A series of events in 1995- including Bosnian Serb militias overrunning a UN 'safe area' in Srebrenica, a mortar attack against a market in Sarajevo, and Senator Bob Dole leading the Congress in a crusade against Clinton's policy of non-intervention- finally encouraged a "lift and strike" policy. NATO bombed the Serb militias while the US lifted an arms embargo so that the Bosnian Muslims could have weapons to defend themselves. The effects were swift, and the militias were forced to the negotiating table. The resulting Dayton Peace Accord gave Bosnia & Herzegovina a very complex democracy that still struggles to get anything done. Basically, BiH is a country with two states or 'entities': the Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska (RS). Each are roughly half of the country. Because the civil war and genocide forced the ethnic groups to separate themselves, RS is predominately Serbian. There are several divides between RS and the Federation, and RS has its own school system, electric system, government structure, etc, etc. Some analysts have speculated that RS might seek a union with Serbia, especially if Kosovo became part of BiH.
The day after going to Mostar, we took an hour-long bus ride into RS where we met the governor of the municipality Pale. We had heard some sketchy things about this dude. We were warned that he might bring in the media and use as as a publicity stunt to show his community that the international community is interested in him. In fact, a reporter did sneak into our interview and took several photographs of us while the governor answered our questions.
Sign just outside of Sarajevo on the road to Pale.
There were also signs warning us about mines
still in the hills.
Perhaps "answer" isn't the best word to describe how the governor responded to our questions. I'll spare most of the details, but he creatively dodged most of our questions. At one point someone asked him what his favorite national football team was. This question is actually an interesting one because many Serbs, including politicians, refuse to cheer for the national Bosnian team. Instead, they cheer for Serbia and whoever is playing against Bosnia. Similarly, the Scottish often cheer against whoever plays England, and the Catalans (Barcelona) cheer against whoever plays against Madrid. However, the dynamics here are very different so that cheering against the national team carries a different meaning. The governor probably understood the angle we were trying to take, so he stubbornly refused to answer directly. He claimed not to really follow football or cheer for one particular team since there were so many. We kept pressing until he said he liked other sports that were popular here, including handball. After some more wrangling, he said he liked the Polish handball team the most.
Ironically, the only question he answered directly was my complicated question about the BiH electric system. Earlier this week I read a political speech from the BiH High Representative railing against the "vested interests" that were blocking reforms that would lead into a common energy economy. A representative at the Office of the High Representative (OHR) told us that these vested interests were specifically government officials in the RS. RS did not want to integrate the energy companies into a more efficient national company because they would then lose out on the profits, which currently goes to the RS and thus to the politicans' supporters and families. Also, integrating the RS energy system into the rest of the country would weaken the RS territorial integrity, especially if it was to later seceed and become part of Serbia (that last point is my own suspicion and not from any interviews). The Pale governor gave a very articulate answer that analyzed the different actors, including specific towns and regions that produce a lot of energy and thus want a lion's share of the profits. Concluding his answer, the governor said he had talked with the High Representative on this issue and agrees 100% with the moves to integrate the RS energy system into a common energy system. If the governor is honest, I wonder why he would support a move that would hurt powerful RS politicians. Does he or his town not profit from the energy monopoly?
The wonderful city of Pale
The interview was a waste if we had expected valuable information we could later use for papers. However, it was very interesting to watch a politician maneuver around questions. It was less of an interview and more of a sales pitch: he wanted to convince us that Pale was the best place in the world with the happiest people. A friend joked that this place has a happiness factory next to the unicorn stables and sugarplum trees. The politician refused to talk about the many problems facing the town and region, including ethnic tensions and divisive politics at the national parliament.
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