Edin Mujkic, a professor at the American University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, in an interview, warned that the rhetoric used by the authorities in the Republika Srpska (RS)and Serbia can only end in a serious escalation, and that some consequences are already visible.
Mujkic says that attacks on the authors of genocide denial reports and the rise of nationalist rhetoric cannot be separated from the authorities in RS and Serbia, and that the two ruling regimes live in symbiosis.
Example of Nazi Germany
“It is reminiscent of the situation in Germany between 1932 and 1939 when Hitler’s regime slowly but steadily intensified its nationalist rhetoric against Jews, Roma, communists, Slavs as well as Germans who did not agree with it. Even when Hitler imposed a state of emergency after the fire in the Reichstag, which was probably started by the Nazis themselves, he started imprisoning political opponents, etc., most thought that German institutions would then, by some miracle, step in and solve it,” says Mujkic.
He explains that it went to the extent that the most influential Jewish magazine in Germany claimed that there is no danger for the Jews because it is all “rhetoric,” because German institutions are strong.
After that, the escalation led to concentration camps, says Mujkic and claims that the regimes in the RS and Serbia must escalate the situation.
Escalation as a political strategy
“Whether it is because of the financial situation in the RS, the distribution of state assets, whether it is because of the protests in Serbia, it becomes less important. Every time there is an escalation, a new ‘status quo’ is actually reached and the borders are moving. What was unthinkable yesterday is today a new rule. So today we have a situation where returnees are attacked, Chetnik songs are played after the commemoration in Srebrenica, photos of Bosniak refugees are used to portray them as victims of operation ‘Storm’, the use of those photos was relativized by Nenad Stevandic, then we come to Aleksandar Djokic from Bijeljina, who is actually himself a victim of this rhetoric,” says Mujkic.
He warns that it is no longer possible to follow what is happening, because while there was talk about Djokic, the “Republican Center for Research on War and War Crimes” misused the names of murdered children from Sarajevo to present them as their victims.
Institutional strengthening
He stated that the parties in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), those who think that they have the sovereignty of BiH as a priority, must leave petty, selfish disputes behind and start working on strengthening the institutions, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
