"The right to live together"
THE United States has finally thrown its weight behind the Vance-Owen plan on Bosnia-Herzegovina, initially criticized by the White House for supporting the practice of "ethnic purification". The US troops now intervening in that country will therefore be furthering the aims of that plan — if necessary with the use of force. In the best of cases, the
Geneva: the world-renowned magicians Vance and
Owen, held over for a few more days in your city
International Viewpoint #243 March 1993 territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is no guarantee for peace: it means the continuation of the policy of 'ethnic purification'".
Nevertheless, there are those who accept the logic of this plan: in the first
Americans will request that a greater amount of living space be accorded to the "Muslim part".
place, the Croatian nationalists who have already signed it. The provinces that have been allocated to them corres-
CATHERINE SAMARY - February 18, 1993
I AM a Muslim, both my first and last name are Muslim, but if they create a Muslim state I couldn't live there," declares Zlatko Dizdarevic during a visit to Paris. This journalist at the Sarajevo-based Oslobodjenie ("Liberation) newspaper describes how their unaltered team of Serbs, Croats and Muslims stubbornly continues its work of providing information.
"Sarajevo and its institutions are like our paper. There are 80,000 Serbs, 100,000 Muslims and 30,000 Croats. In the Bosnian army there are 30% Serbs and 15% Croats who do not support the party of Croatian president Tudjman. It is through the hearts of families and apartments that any lines of ethnic division would have to be drawn. This mix is our ethnic identity and our ethic."
He regrets the American decision to support the Vance-Owen plan: "Bosnia-Herzegovina is not really an issue for them. Macedonia might have a better chance to survive because it has a border with Greece, a member country of the European Economic Community (EEC)... However, we have a much more valuable resource than oil or gold: our community and its values. In their name we reject the plan to divide up the pond to those where a Croat flag already flies, under the control of the HVO, the militia linked to Tudjman's party, the
"There is, in spite of the formal alliance, a fundamental disagreement between Bosnian president Izetbegovic and Croatian president Tudjman; for all intents and purposes the latter is carrying out a policy which is identical to that of Milosevic, and has come to an agreement with him for the dividing up of Bosnia-Herzegovina," claims Dizdarevic.
"That is the reality in the Croat held region of Herzeg-Bosna, ratified by the Vance-Owen plan: there are three big towns, one of which - Mostar - has already been established as a Croat capital. But these three towns have a Muslim majority. Croat ethnic cleansing will continue, just as it has already been implemented by the Serb nationalists in Banja Luka and elsewhere," he continues.
Second, there are the Chetnik militias, who have yet to finish their dirty work. While the Croats are concentrated in Herzegovina, adjoining Croatia, the Serb diaspora is dispersed in several zones distant from the Serbian border.
The "cleansing" of ethnic corridors" through areas with no Serbian majority aims to make the idea of a Ser-
"OVEN TILYZİONİSTİ
VENS i OVEN JOS SAMO
FAR raNa v vaSem GRaPU bian republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina a viable one, and to chase out all its opponents.
### Pacifist pretensions
Whatever may be the pacifist pretensions of the warlords participating at the negotiations, the situation on the ground is determined by those who want to carve out a Greater Serbia; although weak in numbers compared to the Bosnian forces, they can push forward with their plans thanks to the heavy weapon-
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International Viewpoint #243 March 1993 ry left behind by the former Yugoslav army.
Lastly, it is possible that a section of the Muslim population will accept the Owen-Vance-USA plan, since it strengthens those currents favorable to the formation of an Islamic state. They are in a minority in the Muslim community. "Izetbegovic is religious but he is a realist and convinced that Bosnia-Herzegovina can't survive unless it is secular and ethnically mixed."
We can expect to see a growth in intolerance in the Muslim nationalist parties, as we have already seen with their Serbian and Croat equivalents: the "fifth column", the "enemy number one", will increasingly be the "bad" Muslims (like the campaigns against "bad Serbs" and "bad Croats" in Belgrade and Zagreb). What's more, cornered by his Croat pseudo-allies who are now abandoning him, President Izetbegovic will hereafter be under pressure from the Americans: he will have a difficult time maintaining a firm line face to face with the negotiators at Geneva.
But, "if he signs he will enter into an open conflict with the Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats - particularly in the army — who want to continue the struggle for the right to live together", predicts Dizdarevic. These Bosnians are not represented at Geneva: up against
Mate Boban, leader of the Croatian Herzeg-Bosna region of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Radovan Karadzic, leader of the self-proclaimed Serbian republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, President Izetbegovic is forced to speak in the name of the Muslim community.
This stance has been imposed on him by the Serb and Croatian nationalists, by the weakness of the non-nationalist opposition and the ambiguities of his own policy. It has also been imposed by the "international community" who have chosen to accept the prevailing logic of the different nationalisms in power while denouncing their methods; this is the insurmountable contradiction at work at the negotiations.