Christian Schmidt is worried about the “radicalization of Bosniaks”, but analysts believe that there is no basis for this. The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), they claim, can be radicalized by wrong decisions.
High Representative in BiH Christian Schmidt recently spoke about the political situation in BiH in an interview. To the journalist’s statement that the accusations against him, after the last imposed decisions regarding the formation of the government, come from the “Bosniak right-wing spectrum” and the question “Do you worry about the radicalization of Bosniaks”, Schmidt answered in the affirmative. “Yes, I am really worried,” said the High Representative, although he expressed understanding for what Bosniaks experienced during the last war. He added that he also hears “a lot of reasonable voices” from the Bosniak side.
“I don’t want to single anyone out, but I have to say that conversations with reisu-l-ulema Dr. (Husein) Kavazovic and the things he says inspire hope and encouragement. We can have different opinions, but the basic goal that people can live normally in peace always prevails. I share that opinion with the reisu-l-ulema,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt did say this, however, in his Report to the Security Council of the United Nations (UN), he put Husein Kavazovic, the religious authority of Muslim-Bosniak in BiH and the region, as Sarajevo analysts say, on the same level with others who use “aggressive and divisive rhetoric”.
A change to the Schmidt Report to the UN Security Council is being sought
Many in BiH reacted to Schmidt’s concern with the “radicalization of Bosniaks” and mentioned Reis Kavazovic in a negative context. The former reisu-l-ulema of the Islamic Community in BiH, Mustafa Ceric, wrote that he will renounce the German recognitions, which he received for the promotion of peace and stability in BiH and the world if the German diplomat Schmidt does not retract the report on Kavazovic. “Schmidt’s hypocritical Eid visit to reis-l-ulema Kavazovic was a camouflage for what he intended to convey to the world, which is that the Bosniak supreme leader is disrupting peace and stability in BiH,” Ceric believes.
Not all “ethno-nationalists” liked Schmidt’s decisions
“Unfortunately, the last decisions of the Office of the High Representative (OHR), which completed the formation of the government at all levels, gave the ethno-nationalist parties legal opportunities and further instruments for the division of the state and society, thus calling into question the overall value system of the necessary process of Euro-Atlantic integration,” Dino Mustafic, BiH movie director and one of the founders of Our Party wrote in his text “Culture of Hate”.
While Schmidt’s decision strengthened the position of the predominantly Croatian (HDZ BiH) “ethno-nationalist” party (HDZ BiH), he temporarily excluded the predominantly Bosniak party (SDA) from the process of government formation, according to the director of the International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies (IFMES) Zijad Becirovic. “This could have a negative impact on the Bosniak perception of the international community, and therefore I believe that the situation in BiH is being radicalized by High Representative Christian Schmidt with controversial decisions that are harmful to the processes of European integration, which have had unequivocal Bosniak support all along,” says Becirovic.
Radicalization as an excuse for attacks on Bosniak-Muslims
Asked to comment on Schmidt’s concern about “Bosniak radicalism”, professor at the Faculty of Islamic Sciences in Sarajevo, Ahmet Alibasic, notes that there are radicals in every nation, but that the difference is whether they are the majority or a proscribed minority.
“I don’t know on what basis the High Representative expressed concern, but let’s try to speak in the language of facts: Bosniaks have shown in the recent elections that they are the only ones with the internal capacity for change. Instead of inviting others to emulate them, the story of radicalization is served. We are used to fiction to justify injustices towards Bosniaks. War crimes and genocide against Bosniaks are often justified by the presence of foreign fighters (note: Mujahideen), although, as we know, there were none in BiH in 1992. Consequences are promoted as causes,” Alibasic explained.
“The High Representative probably needs to draw attention away from his bias and inability to offer permanent solutions to the blockages in the political life of BiH, so he stigmatizes the most numerous but politically weakest nation according to the established pattern,” he added. Professor Alibasic also believes that thus “the not at all European and not at all liberal conversations of his proteges from the BiH political scene are thrown into the background”.
The balance of radicalization and stories about the closing of the OHR
Banja Luka sociologist Ivan Sijakovic does not notice “any radicalization of Bosniaks”, but says that it is possible that Schmidt is worried about some information, which he is not aware of. “What is happening in public life, in the public space of BiH, is nothing unusual, that is, it is not about increased radicalization compared to the one that has been generally present for the last twenty or thirty years. I think here Schmidt is trying to create some balance, if the conditions in Republika Srpska (RS) have already become radicalized, maybe he wants to show that Bosniaks are also becoming radicalized, maybe Schmidt wants to establish some balance in radicalization, which I think is a wrong strategy,” says professor Sijakovic.
In the media, the question of whether BiH needs a High Representative has been brought up again. Referring to unofficial information, some BiH portals wrote that Russia and China could give legitimacy to Christian Schmidt as a High Representative, but with the condition of closing the OHR within a year. Alibasic also talked about whether BiH needs a High Representative. “BiH needs a High Representative, but one who will install the best European solutions in its constitutional and legal order, and not the medieval ones. We already have those,” concludes Professor Ahmet Alibasic, DW reports.
E.Dz.
