se times
02/12/2010
Even agreeing on a national holiday has proved elusive in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
By Jusuf Ramadanovic for Southeast European Times in Sarajevo – 01/12/10
Even agreeing on a national holiday has proved elusive in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
By Jusuf Ramadanovic for Southeast European Times in Sarajevo – 01/12/10
Statehood Day, celebrated on Thursday (November 25th), is an impressive occasion. Around 400 high-ranking international and local officials -- including the Turkish, Montenegrin, Serbian and Romanian ambassadors to BiH -- attended this year's ceremonial reception at the Presidency Building in Sarajevo.
It commemorates a 1943 anti-fascist council which affirmed the statehood and territorial integrity of BiH, and seems a perfect candidate for a national holiday.
There's only one catch: a significant part of the country -- namely the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS) -- has declined to observe it.
"I cannot say never, but I must say it's hardly likely," Serb state presidency member Nebojsa Radmanovic told the newspaper Vecernij List when asked if Banja Luka's position would change.
"A BiH holiday is something we all agree upon and if we cannot agree upon a certain date, there are some other dates we can agree upon. This date is important for the past of this country, but it is not a state holiday of Bosnia and Herzegovina," he said. "This should be taken into account by all, even those who are today attacking those who do not accept this day as the Statehood Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina." Radmanovic did not attend the official reception.
Meanwhile, a prominent RS politician was quoted as saying Sarajevo is to blame. "On several occasions, the representatives of the Serb people in the BiH state government have tried to reach an agreement on holidays, but this was not successful because the Bosniaks do not accept any agreements," said Dusanka Majkic, who chairs of the House of Peoples of BiH and is a member of RS President Milorad Dodik's SNSD party.
Political analyst Asim Mujkic, who is vice dean of Sarajevo University's political science department, said there are three reasons for the impasse: one legal, one political, and one having to do with values.
The legal reason, he says, has to do with a 1993 proclamation in Republika Srpska's Official Bulletin that declared the Serb people have withdrawn their signature from the 1943 council's agreement.
Politically, he said, RS does not recognize claims of historical continuity regarding the BiH state. In terms of values, a holiday which celebrates the coming together of three equal peoples in the fight against fascism does not jive well with the ethnic nationalist themes emphasized by RS politicians, who prefer to portray Serbs as an endangered people, beset by adversaries.
"Normalization does not suit them," Misic argued.
A resident of East Sarajevo in the RS, who did not want his name to be published, voiced indifference about the holiday. "What do I care what they celebrate in the Federation? We have our Republika Srpska, and we care about our dates," he said.
It commemorates a 1943 anti-fascist council which affirmed the statehood and territorial integrity of BiH, and seems a perfect candidate for a national holiday.
There's only one catch: a significant part of the country -- namely the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS) -- has declined to observe it.
"I cannot say never, but I must say it's hardly likely," Serb state presidency member Nebojsa Radmanovic told the newspaper Vecernij List when asked if Banja Luka's position would change.
"A BiH holiday is something we all agree upon and if we cannot agree upon a certain date, there are some other dates we can agree upon. This date is important for the past of this country, but it is not a state holiday of Bosnia and Herzegovina," he said. "This should be taken into account by all, even those who are today attacking those who do not accept this day as the Statehood Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina." Radmanovic did not attend the official reception.
Meanwhile, a prominent RS politician was quoted as saying Sarajevo is to blame. "On several occasions, the representatives of the Serb people in the BiH state government have tried to reach an agreement on holidays, but this was not successful because the Bosniaks do not accept any agreements," said Dusanka Majkic, who chairs of the House of Peoples of BiH and is a member of RS President Milorad Dodik's SNSD party.
Political analyst Asim Mujkic, who is vice dean of Sarajevo University's political science department, said there are three reasons for the impasse: one legal, one political, and one having to do with values.
The legal reason, he says, has to do with a 1993 proclamation in Republika Srpska's Official Bulletin that declared the Serb people have withdrawn their signature from the 1943 council's agreement.
Politically, he said, RS does not recognize claims of historical continuity regarding the BiH state. In terms of values, a holiday which celebrates the coming together of three equal peoples in the fight against fascism does not jive well with the ethnic nationalist themes emphasized by RS politicians, who prefer to portray Serbs as an endangered people, beset by adversaries.
"Normalization does not suit them," Misic argued.
A resident of East Sarajevo in the RS, who did not want his name to be published, voiced indifference about the holiday. "What do I care what they celebrate in the Federation? We have our Republika Srpska, and we care about our dates," he said.
The BiH state parliament has not yet managed to pass a single state-level law on state holidays. Other proposed occasions -- March 1 (Independence Day) and July 11 (Anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide) – are unacceptable to RS.
The 1943 council which Statehood Day memoralizes was held during the night of November 25th and the small hours of the following day. A total of 173 councilors assembled under cover of dark due to the danger of Nazi aviation attacks.
They declared BiH is neither Muslim, Serb, nor Croat, but is rather a country founded on all three constituent ethnicities, with none having an exclusive territorial right.
Two further sessions of the Zemaljsko Antifasisticko Vijeće Narodnog Oslobođenja BiH (ZAVNOBiH) were held, in 1944 and 1945, but the first is considered the most significant.
This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.
The 1943 council which Statehood Day memoralizes was held during the night of November 25th and the small hours of the following day. A total of 173 councilors assembled under cover of dark due to the danger of Nazi aviation attacks.
They declared BiH is neither Muslim, Serb, nor Croat, but is rather a country founded on all three constituent ethnicities, with none having an exclusive territorial right.
Two further sessions of the Zemaljsko Antifasisticko Vijeće Narodnog Oslobođenja BiH (ZAVNOBiH) were held, in 1944 and 1945, but the first is considered the most significant.
This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.
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