A Tale of Two Cities

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. --Dickens-

The town of Mostar, once the administrative quarters for the Ottoman Empire, is now the capital of Herzegovina. That is the suffix you see in the hyphenation, "Bosnia-Herzegovina," which is the official title of Bosnia. The title was adopted in the 18th century when the Austro-Hungarians annexed it from the Ottoman. (Unlike the Republic of Srpska, the other entity of Bosnia in the NW corner, Herzegovina is officially recognised.) Herzegovina is a region that runs on the West side of Bosnia and is an entity within BiH. Rugged and gorgeous, this Mediterranean valley is carved out of the mountains and winds around the river Neretva.

Herzegovina, of Herzog, which was named after a Serb archbishop, was once a hearty mix of Serb, Croat and Muslim. After the war and the "cleanse" therein, few Serbs remain.

Croats and Bosniaks (the term referring to Muslims) inhabit Herzegovina. Correction: Bosnian-Croatians.

Another element to the Bosnian mix. Things just keep getting brighter.

And so the splintering/fractionning/dividing of Bosnia begin...

Mostar exists in two versions. It wasn't always this way. Two wars. Two peoples. Two cities. Same blood, same faces. Just two different names. Some Samir's, others Marko's. Muslim names; Croatian streets. Two languages. Two schools. Two places of worship. Two mayors (until recently.)

Herzegovina today though, is very much Croatian in my mind. Bosnian-Croats have a slightly larger population. Nevertheless, whether standing atop of the old bridge amoung tourists in the Bosniak part of Old Town, or sipping on espresso on the other side of the Boulevard in Croatian parts, the division is clear. All one has to do is look at the enclosed hills and see a most obstructive cross looking down on you.

The Genocide Game Continues

Understandably, there seems to be some confusion about all the court clout or lack thereof. As written in the blog on 2/3, Serbia has been cleared of genocide by the World Court earlier in March. It however was found guilty in failure to prevent genocide at Srebrenica. So you can call that case, "thrown out." (Again, there are 2 courts in The Hague, one for war crime individuals and one for states, so the former is still choc-full of Balkan boys, and the latter has a queue with Croatia up next against Serbia for war reparations.)

Incidentally, this last week a number of other “developments” have occurred. First, it has been regurgitated that Serbia has been hiding confidential military archives on which in the most explicit terms, bleed red from the pages and incriminate Serbia in the state’s involvement in the Bosnian war. These archives which had arrived at The Hague’s mail room back in 1993 in preparation for Milosevic’s trial, were apparently granted censorship by a court order. Parts of the archives were selected classified and sealed from the public so as to protect Serbia’s national security, which at the time was still operating under Yugoslavia.

Why didn’t the judge subpoena these documents?

Some judges and law academics speculate that it would appear that the court was acting biased…

The other timely development that came down this week occurred in Serbia’s own war courts (sound familiar?) in which four paramilitary member of the notorious Scorpion unit, were sent to prison for murder at Srebrenica. These paramilitary units, often of the most atrocious kinds, act somewhat independent of the state's orders and remained in Bosnia after Milosevic paid lip service to world pressure and withdrew his troops from Bosnia. These units often referred to as the surplus convicts that got early parole, and included the misappropriated Chetniks, assisted the Bosnian Serb army in special cases, including Srebrenica. The four men were sentenced to a range of five to 20 years in prison. This case should be concluded that they were found guilty as evidenced in a video showing the unit killing young Muslim men at Srebrenica. This video has circulated throughout Serbia for the last two years creating the first tremor of shock among urban Serbs, who it should be noted, did not know the extent of what was behind the propaganda machine of Milosevic and his men, once across the Serbian border. (Similarly, Americans don't know the extent of what occurs with our foreign policy at Guantanamo, for example. )

Timely. Twenty years, deliberate murders… This court ruling, again, is gesturing for the international community and E.U., is the showmanship of deflecting blame.

For a counter-balance, today for the first time, a Bosnian Serb war criminal was found guilty in the UN War Crimes Tribunal for rape. He was found at the border in Siberia and pleaded guilty for a sentence of 15 years. Again, this is the first time first time that wartime rape and sexual enslavement has been charged as a crime against humanity.

Many steps backward in circumnavigating justice, and small acknowledgements forward.