RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 4, No. 219, Part II, 10 November 2000
END NOTE
BOSNIAN VOTERS TO CHOOSE BETWEEN NATIONALISM AND DEMOCRACY
By Jolyon Naegele
Up to 2.5 million voters in Bosnia-Herzegovina will cast
ballots in several elections scheduled for 11 November. They
will elect representatives to legislatures in the Muslim-
Croatian Federation and its 10 cantons and in the Bosnian-
Serb entity, Republika Srpska. They will also vote for an
all-Bosnian parliament as well as for the president and vice
president of Republika Srpska and leaders of one
municipality, Srebrenica.
The results of previous legislative elections, in 1996
and 1998, reflected pre-war political divisions along ethnic
lines. But there is some hope this time that the recent shift
away from radical nationalism toward moderation and democracy
in Croatia, Serbia, and Kosova will serve as an example for
voters in both Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croatian
Federation.
Since the civil war, which ended five years ago with the
Dayton Peace accords, Bosnia has experienced a brain drain of
some 100,000. Many experts have fled a homeland where more a
third of the population remains unemployed, while close to
two-thirds--including the jobless--live in poverty.
A recent cartoon in the Sarajevo daily "Dnevni Ajvaz"
shows three scenes. In the first, a man in Croatia stretches
out under a sunny sky. In the second, three men blink after a
light is turned on in the darkness of Yugoslavia. And in the
third, a man stumbles in the darkness of Bosnia-Herzegovina
and asks, "Will it ever be dawn here?"
The European Union's high representative in Bosnia,
Austrian diplomat Wolfgang Petritsch, is urging voters across
Bosnia to rethink their political allegiances. He used the
"Dnevni Ajvaz" cartoon in a speech in Sarajevo earlier this
week to appeal to voters to follow the example of moderation
recently set elsewhere in former Yugoslav republics. He said
a long-term protectorate is not the right answer for Bosnia.
For its part, the OSCE, which is supervising the
elections, has produced a video clip featuring three young
female singers--a Croat, a Serb, and a Muslim from different
parts of Bosnia. The three young women tell voters that they
can shape their own future. Television stations across Bosnia
have been showing the clip for the last three weeks.
Among the political groups campaigning for moderation is
Bosnia's multiethnic Social Democratic Party (SDP). SDP
chairman Zlatko Lagumdzija is hoping voters will opt for
responsibility rather than cast ballots according to their
ethnic identity. "The SDP is a political party that wants to
work with other political parties on a responsible program,"
he said. "This is the only chance for Bosnia and Herzegovina,
for both entities, all three peoples and Bosnia's 4 million
people."
The SDP's moderate stance has upset nation-oriented
parties-- including, the Muslim Party of Democratic Action
(SDA)--which fear they will lose votes to the Social
Democrats. SDA leader Alija Izetbegovic recently resigned the
presidency of Bosnia saying he wants to devote all his
energies to party work, an indication of the serious threat
he and his party perceive in the elections.
The end of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's
regime in Yugoslavia is unlikely to have a significant impact
on the outcome of voting in Republika Srpska. True, the
Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), which had its differences
with Milosevic, has kept its nationalist, anti-Western
rhetoric to a minimum in the campaign. Nevertheless, an
international think tank--the International Crisis Group--and
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke have recently
called for the party to be banned. The OSCE rejects the
calls, saying the SDS has yet to commit "a particularly
egregious violation of the rules and regulations."
The SDS was founded by indicted war criminal Radovan
Karadzic but is now distancing itself from him. The party's
candidate for Republika Srpska president, Mirko Sarovic, is
expected to get almost twice as many Serbian votes as Bosnian
Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, his chief rival.
Another moderate group fighting for votes in the Bosnian
Serb entity, the Party of Democratic Progress, is campaigning
on an economic reform and anti-corruption platform.
Bosnia's biggest Croatian party--the Croatian Democratic
Union (HDZ)--is warning that Bosnia's Croats face
extermination if moderate parties win. The HDZ's sister party
in Croatia was defeated in parliamentary elections early this
year after the death of the party's leader, President Franjo
Tudjman.
Bosnia's HDZ has provoked the international community's
ire by organizing a referendum on establishing a Bosnian
Croat legislature. The EU's high representative has
denounced--but not banned--the referendum.
The HDZ leader in the divided city of Mostar, Ante
Jelavic, is telling Croats in Bosnia, who in past elections
have voted overwhelmingly for HDZ, that a vote for HDZ means
a vote for equal rights with the Serbs and Muslims. "On 11
November, we are going to the polls But we are also going
into a referendum on the right of the Croat nation not to
give a millimeter more or less than the Serbs and Muslims in
Bosnia-Herzegovina," he commented.
The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia-
Herzegovina earlier this week called the 2000 parliamentary
election campaign the "dirtiest" since the war--even though
it has been less violent than recent past campaigns. It is
doubtful that the increased mud-slinging will serve to
persuade the people of Bosnia to vote for moderation.
The author is an RFE/RL senior correspondent based in Pra
Copyright (c) 2000. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
http://www.rferl.org
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