Renowned journalist Ed Vulliamy in his column for the British “The Guardian” wonders why the international community treats Ukraine so differently today compared to how it treated Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
During the war, Vulliamy reported from BiH
”But this week, 30 years ago, there was a similar crime in BiH. On April 6th and 7th, three decades ago, when the United States (U.S.) and the European Union (EU) recognized the Bosnian republic, Serbian snipers and Russian-backed artillery opened fire on the capital Sarajevo, launching the worst massacre in Europe since the Third Reich – so far, we pray that Ukrainedoesn’t take that awful title if it hasn’t already, ” he writes for The Guardian.
The big difference between the events in BiH and Ukraine
Vulliamy told that messages of support for the people of Ukraine are now coming from Sarajevo, interpreting them as “We stand by you, not only because we agree with you, but also because we have survived it.” He pointed out that there are still big differences between what is happening in Ukraine now and what happened in BiH, Avaz writes.
“While most of the West rightly gathers around Ukraine, the hurricane of violence against Bosnian Muslims and Croat Catholics has met with confusion, apathy among the so-called international community focused on appeasing the aggressors, Serbs and Bosnian Serbs,” he said.
He added that in the United Kingdom (UK), the leaders of such an attitude were precisely the people who are now described as greats of the Conservative Party: John Major, Douglas Hurd, Malcolm Rickfind, and that they had an ally in organized and intellectual left-wing politics.
”While the West armed the Ukrainian resistance, the arms embargo on all sides captured the BiH army and gave the aggressor a calculated, superior military advantage,” Vulliamywrites, adding that, “while the nightmare in Ukraine forces the” international community “to seek a solution within of three weeks, the same thing took three years in Bosnia. “
Furthermore, he mentioned that a long siege of Sarajevo began this week in 1992, just eight years after the city hosted the Winter Olympics. He stressed that most Bosniaks in eastern Bosnia were killed or displaced during the war in BiH, that many women were detained in rape camps, and that villages and mosques were set on fire or attacked in isolated “safe zones” declared by the United Nations (UN).
Vulliamy noted he was part of a team of journalists who uncovered a “gulag of concentration camps for Muslim and Catholic prisoners” in August 1992, which had been open since May that year, where thousands of people had been killed, tortured, and raped.
Bosnia is not just a matter of the past
“Bosnia is not just a matter of the past,” Vulliamy concluded, referring to an open letter from various Balkan and peace groups warning of heightened tensions “created by Russian allies among Serbs and Bosnian Serbs seeking to separate Bosnian Serb ‘Donbas‘ from BiH.”
”Why wasn’t Bosnia as important as it is, rightly, Ukraine? Marching through the blue-yellow sea of people in London last Saturday, it was shocking to recall a few demonstrators 30 years ago for Bosnia (whose colors were the same),” he stated.
E.Dz.
