Sarajevsko brewery tour: a peek into the fourth pillar of post conflict "state building": Pivo.
On July 7, we kept the ball rolling by visiting the Catholic Cardinal Pulic. He told us about his work during the siege to drill a water pump to get more water for the surrounding community, which is mostly muslim, and himself. During the siege, he would also travel to the US and around Europe, trying to spread the word about what was going on in Sarajevo and to get more resources from Catholic charities. After the war, he has worked to rebuild schools and create interfaith dialogue. Besides being a member of the Multi Faith Council in Sarajevo, he helped to organize camps where Catholics and Serbian Orthodox Children could meet and pray with each other (a third party from Europe did the organizing of the actual prayer, etc., so that there would be no claims of bias one way or the other). He also said that the visits by the Pope in 1997 and 2000 to BiH had a healing effect across religions.
One couple thing that the Cardinal said that I thought was interesting was how he said that he did not flee from Sarajevo because Sarajevo is his home; nowhere else could possibly be home. I thought this was interesting and showed the level of dedication he had to staying at his post as Sarajevo's Cardinal. He travelled internationally many times during the war, but always returned to the city, even when it was under siege. He also said that he was not surprised that Yugoslavia did not last because it was not founded on justice because things that are not founded on justice will not survive. I appreciate this sentiment, but even though I can not answer the question it still persists: After all of the bloodshed and conflict in BiH, Croatia, Serbia and Kosovo, what will the people here call 'Justice' and would they know it if they saw it?
After a free day on Sunday, we got back to business on Monday, visiting the Grand Mufti, or Dr. Mustafa Ceric, who is the Muslim leader in Sarajevo. He also sits on the Multi Faith Council here in Sarajevo (for those of you keeping track- we have met 3 of the 4 members of the Multi Faith Council- the Catholic, Jewish and Muslim representatives). This time of the year is a very difficult times for muslims in the BiH because today, over 500 remains were added to the memorial graveyard at Srebrenica that we visited on Friday. Dr. Mustafa, as he had us call him, spoke not only about Srebrenica, but also about how the EU will likely not accept BiH because of the high population of Muslims. Some other students have shared the same opinion, which may have some credence to it because there is no predominantly muslim country currently in the EU.
Although Samuel P. Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" is a controversial piece standard of International Relations literature, Dr. Mustafa's claim supports Huntington's thesis that the clashes of the 21st century will be over civilizations (ie West v. East, etc.). Turkey's exclusion thus far from the EU has also highlighted the Arab/Christian Europe divide. Dr. Mustafa also delved into the role of religion in the world. Almost quoting directly from Huntington, Dr. Mustafa talked about how the combination of a failure of 18th and 19th century philosophers to give answers to the meaning of life and the 'flattening' of the world and diminishing national identities have given rise to an increased identification based on religion. Essentially, Dr. Mustafa (and Huntington to some extent) claim that more people are turning to religion as a source of identity and purpose of life. In countries like BiH, Croatia and Serbia where religious, ethnic and national identities often coincide, the differences and rivalries are that much stronger.
Anyway, back to the point. Dr. Mustafa did not seem to be afraid to praise the US influence in ending the war and the international influence on bringing perpetrators of genocide to justice. Dr. Mustafa was the only religious leader we have spoken to thus far who has gone on a couple EU or UN project trips to Germany and Japan to learn about post conflict negotiation. His embrace of the international community is important because it verifies what we have heard that the muslims view the international community as the only thing keeping a lid on potential violence, in which they could potentially fighting two fronts again.
After leaving our meeting with Dr. Mustafa, we walked over to the Presidency to watch the procession of the victims of Srebrenica. What astounded me what how quiet the area was. Once the police vehicles and the three trucks carrying the caskets showed up, all you could hear was a low murmur of hushed conversation, the idling of the trucks and people crying. Some people brought flowers with them to put on the trucks(like in the picture). From where we were, we could not see or hear which of the politicians came out to speak, but it was more important for us to observe the non-political interactions. Today the caskets from inside the truck were finally laid to rest.
We had an hour or so to get lunch before visiting the Office of the High Representative. The OHR is the office that was installed to monitor the governance of BiH until such time as it appeared that the political parties in BiH were stable. Obviously, the fact that it is still here after so many years is an indication that there is some trepidation that all is not well. The OHR has the power to remove Presidents and in effect pass laws in lieu of the BiH parliament. Honestly, I am not surprised that it is still here because its mere presence is a huge slap in the face to BiH sovereignty, if it has any. Although it has made some progress and is starting to step back and forcing BiH politicians to resolve their own disputes, I think that it sends the wrong message when an undemocratically appointed High Representative from outside BiH has more authority than elected politicians.
I will stop writing before I get myself into trouble. I know that the OHR has probably had an overall positive and stabilizing presence, but I also think that its continued presence undercuts its purpose for existing.
Tuesday we took a short drive up to Pale to visit the AUBiH university there. It is just 16 km outside of Sarajevsko (about a 20-25 minute drive through some beautiful country- on a side note, I would love to do more hiking here if I was sure I wouldn't come across any land mines). Pale is just inside the Republic of Srpska and in mostly Serbian in population. We were introduced to some of the faculty and given some background on the university before we were able to ask some questions. Apparently a couple of our questions were too tame for Mladen, who decided to ruffle some feathers by asking about the students' feelings towards the EU and Republic of Srpska. He asked if they would accept a demand from the EU that would effectively strip the Republic of Srpska of any political power or self governance. To put it mildly, the students told us (and Mladen) that they would not accept such an EU mandate, that they did not believe in their politicians or the EU and that such a mandate would eradicate everything they fought for in the 1992-1995 war.
To most peoples' relief, one of the AUBiH professors suggested that we break into small groups and talk over coffee. I was able to get a seat with a couple other NU students and we had a great talk with 4 AUBiH Serb students. After they were convinced that we would not antagonize them (it helped that one of us was a Greek and Orthodox "brother" to them), they opened up and told us about their perceptions of BiH as a whole, the Republic of Srpska's ambitions for independence, rakje, Srebrenica, etc. It was interesting to hear that each of them had Croat and/or Bosnian friends who they got along with perfectly fine, but that they didn't trust the politicians. This seems to be a common theme, distrust of politicians. I know that Congress has a poor approval rating in the US, but at least we don't suspect that they could potentially bring us into another civil war.
Today we had a chance to talk all this over as a class. I know that we all had different conversations, but I can not share my peers' pessimism or feelings of depression springing from yesterday's conversations. I think that there is a chance for the younger generations to make some incredible progress towards reconciliation. But that won't occur without phenomenal leadership. There are so many organizations like the OHR and the Multi Faith Council that are trying to heal the divisions, but I think that an organic grass-roots movement would go much further. Like I said above, the common theme seems to be distrust of the politicians to do anything. Like Governor Dukakis constantly told us in Public Policy and Administration, if you can agree on the problem, then you can find a solution. I know that the problem is deeper than simple mistrust of politicians, but I find the absence of an active and engaged civil society here strange. Maybe because of my own background and having just come from a co-op in Washington, D.C., I expected more political activity in the populous. Of course, I should check those expectations because the political dynamics are clearly much different here than in the US. Perhaps because I'm incredibly stubborn, I still believe that right now, even with seemingly insurmountable ethnic and constitutional issues, there is a huge opportunity for a group or a leader to bring a vision of reconciliation and eagerness to engage in dialogue towards solving theses problems (I'll though in my personal bias that starting from scratch and creating an organic, truly BiH constitution would be the ideal here).
Yesterday, after the meeting in Pale, we visited the "Tunnel of Hope/Life", which was used to smuggle arms, humans, food, etc., underneath the UN-controlled Sarajevo airport. The tunnel was used by about 3000 people a day and was 800m long and about 1.5-2 m high. They have preserved about twenty meters of it:
Without this tunnel, I am pretty sure that the humanitarian crisis would have been much worse. At the same time, it highlights the frustrations with the UN's presence in Sarajevo. I think it was interesting that they admitted that many weapons were smuggled into Sarajevo to defend the city against Serbs, which the Serbs obviously weren't happy about. At the same time, if I think about what I would have done in a Sarajevo under siege if I were a Bosnian looking for a way to survive and fight back, I would have done the same thing. Although it is tempting to flee, I don't know if I could handle the guilt of having left my people there to suffer through the siege.
I know it's a bit hypocritical to condemn the violence that occurred here and also write that I would have fought back if I were in the position that the soldiers were in (this applies to all sides). But for me, in order to attempt to understand as many sides here, I have to ask myself what I would do if I were put in different positions and different situations. Perhaps it is my fear of being absolutely helpless that makes me tend towards wanting to fight back. When it comes down to it, if I were actually put in the situation, depending on who I was responsible for or if it meant the difference between seeing my friends and family live, I may make a different decision.
So, before signing off, I would suggest that anybody trying to understand the Balkan conflict (or any other conflict) try to get to the root of why people fight. Whether it's religious, because they're defending their home, for survival, they're fighting for independence, etc. Essentially, if someone is willing to die for something, it is worth some attention and contemplation.
Until next time, Lucas out.
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