Bosnian elections
proceed peacefully
By Gregory Piatt
Bosnia bureau
They came, they drove, they saw, and nothing happened.
Just three weeks ago, there was a weeklong student protest, and some international officials said it was a display of nationalism leading up to national election in Bosnia. But when election day came, U.S. soldiers had a nice “Sunday drive” on Saturday, watching voters go to the polls to cast votes instead of throw stones at them in protest.
“It’s pretty quiet and nothing is happening,” said Capt. Sergio Gonzalez — commander of Company C of the 315th Infantry Task Force of the 3rd Infantry Division — while patrolling the volatile town of Brcko. “I hope it stays that way.”
The goal of Gonzalez’s two-Humvee patrol was to observe what was happening outside polling stations and on the streets in Brcko during Bosnia’s third national election since the war ended five years ago.
“We are to observe if there are problems with people at the polling stations, throwing rocks or protesting,” Gonzalez said. “If there are problems, we do nothing but call the local police and let them take care of it. “We are the last line of defense.”
According to Bosnian radio, all was calm in the country.
Some voters experienced problems figuring out at which polling stations to vote, but that was all the radio reported.
As many Bosnians cast votes early on a cold but sunny Saturday morning, moderate voters and international officials hoped the election would send nationalists among the country’s three ethnic groups to defeat.
Under the Dayton peace agreement, Bosnia was split into two parts — the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serbian republic. Voters select from the federation select candidates for positions in the federation while Serbs select politicians for the republic.
In the Brcko district, where there is a high concentration of all three ethnic groups, voters can select candidates for either entity, but they must declare which entity represents them.
Until a year an a half ago, Brcko was in the Serbian republic, but international officials declared it a separate district not under republic or federation control after Muslims and Croats didn’t want to be a part of the republic.
The only problem the district experienced was election advertising too near or in the polling stations, said Army Maj. Ernest Harageones, the team chief for civil affairs from nearby Camp McGovern.
“There are some issues of election posters within 50 meters of the polling station,” Harageones said. “There was one person with a referendum T-shirt working in a polling station.”
The nationalist Croat Democratic Union decided to hold a referendum on Croat autonomy within the federation. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has declared the referendum illegal and unbinding.
They also declared that the Union’s posters declaring “self-determination or extermination” were illegal, spreading ethnic hatred, and had to be removed.
But as the two-Humvee convoy made its way through the district’s pothole-filled roads where houses still bear the scars of war, the illegal Democratic Union poster still could be seen.
The extermination part was papered over with a “for,” so the sign read “self-determination for the Croat Democratic Union.”
As the convoy went through places like upper, middle and lower Mahala, the soldiers discussed their social plans as they scouted the polling stations for trouble.
They continued through Croat, Muslim and Serbian areas where the words on the signs changed from Latin to Cyrillic letters, Gonzalez declared, “it’s a beautiful country.”
“It was,” the soldier’s interpreter Ivanja Lapsinski quipped. “But it is getting better.”
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