A hearing titled “The Path to Stability in the Western Balkans” was held two days ago in the United States (U.S.) Congress, and among the speakers was Max Primorac, an associate of the think tank Heritage Foundation and a person connected to HDZ.
As is usually the case when Primorac makes public statements regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), this was preceded by a meeting with Zeljana Zovko, a member of the European Parliament from HDZ known for her radical views. She also attended this hearing.
When Primorac took the floor, two men spoke through him. One of them was the convicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic, through the rhetoric about “Muslims oppressing Christians” and “BiH as a failed state,” while the other was Dragan Covic, president of HDZ, through the story about the third entity and “domination over Croats in BiH.”
“Muslims” as obstructors and oppressors
Primorac spoke before the other speakers and numerous congressmen who are part of the Subcommittee on Europe within the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in a manner strongly reminiscent of the rhetoric from the time of the aggression against BiH.
In the manner of Karadzic, who spoke about “defending Christian Europe from Islam,” Primorac blamed “Muslims,” as he calls Bosniaks, for all bad things in BiH.
Thus, according to Primorac, “Muslims” are to blame for the blocking of the Southern Interconnection, for the separatism expressed by certain parties in Republika Srpska (RS), as well as for the “oppression of Croats.” To make things more bizarre, according to Primorac, “Muslims” are also to blame for Croats emigrating from BiH, even though this is a problem affecting the entire country and the region, including Croatia.
Of course, none of this is unexpected from Primorac, who in his previous texts emphasized almost identical positions, where all problems in BiH, including the secessionist tensions of Milorad Dodik and his party, are the fault of political Sarajevo.
His claims can easily be refuted, none more easily than the alleged “Muslim blockade” of the Southern Interconnection. From the beginning, those primarily opposed to the construction of the gas pipeline were HDZ officials, who threatened to block the project because there was no agreement to establish a new company to carry out the construction.
Covic and his party colleagues announced in almost every statement that they would, in every possible way, through their levers of power in the cantons in the south of BiH, block construction until the “interests of the Croatian people” were protected, which in this context can be translated as gaining control over the construction and management of the gas pipeline.
However, the claims Primorac made two days ago in Congress are a problem because in the U.S., regardless of their falsehood and bias, they fall on fertile ground.
In other words, for Americans who possibly listened to this hearing, especially those close to the Heritage Foundation where Primorac works, it is not particularly important to check whether the claims are true. What matters is that they sound like something they believe; that “bad Muslims” oppress and mistreat “good Christians.”
In the era of U.S. President Donald Trump, truth is secondary to narrative, and Max Primorac’s Karadzic-style narrative is precisely what Americans, especially those belonging to Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, want to hear, to confirm their views about Muslims.
Covic’s advantage in Washington
Behind the narrative that Primorac consciously presented in Congress lies the plan to advance HDZ’s interests in BiH.
For this reason, packaged within this story about “bad Muslims,” Primorac proposed everything that Covic also demands.
The story of the third entity is at the center, and ultimately, it does not even matter whether this is a realistic goal or simply a negotiating position, because for HDZ and its president in BiH, the only important thing was that someone with serious standing in conservative circles presented these views.
Primorac thus positioned himself as a pronounced advantage that Covic and HDZ have in the U.S. For a lobbyist like Primorac, who, admittedly, has a very good sense of the political pulse in Washington and pushes the interests of those he represents accordingly, some would pay millions.
To put that into context, Dodik and SNSD invested tens of millions of dollars (public money) in order to have lobbyists like Primorac, but they ended up only with relatively obscure figures such as Rod Blagojevic, who have nowhere near the influence in Washington that Primorac has.
He remained isolated at the hearing, but for how long?
Fortunately for BiH, Primorac’s distorted reality about BiH remained “isolated,” because the other speakers clearly spoke about the need for cooperation, and the only ones singled out were the officials from RS, who were criticized for their secessionist tendencies.
Among them was the chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe within the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Keith Self, who even slipped in a criticism of the current administration for lifting sanctions on Dodik and his associates.
The same views, including the need to retain the Office of the High Representative (OHR), were expressed by the other speakers, Edward Joseph and Luke Coffey, who nevertheless gave the viewers and those present at the hearing what can be described as an objective picture of the events in BiH.
However, the direction in which the U.S. is heading, with a special emphasis on the radicalization of those parts of society that can be described as xenophobic, means that there will be more and more Primoracs in Washington, and fewer Josephs and Coffeys.
It is clear that BiH diplomacy cannot “drive out” Primorac from conservative circles, nor can it order Congress whom to invite when discussing BiH, but they do have the task of amplifying the voices that can serve as a counterbalance to Primorac, and that will even give radical factions an objective analysis of events coming from the real situation on the ground, rather than Covic’s and Dodik’s ideas packaged in the narrative of war criminals.
Primorac remained isolated two days ago, but he might not be at the next hearing. That is the worst-case scenario for BiH, but it can be avoided if the most important people in Washington are informed in the right way, Klix.ba writes.
