Bosnian Syndrome

‘‘After Bosnia, Sandzak comes next.'' This statement Sulejman Ugljanin, the leader of the Party of Democratic Action for Sandzak (SDA), recently gave in the interview with an Istanbul daily has once again disturbed and caused anxiety among Serbs and Muslims in this part of Yugoslavia. Such fears frequently felt over the past year and a half that the war might spill over from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Sandzak have been fueled again. No one has remained indifferent before a renewed interest of the international community in Sandzak and Kosovo and recollections of the beginning of the Bosnian war. At the end of last year the leader of Sandzak Muslims said in an interview with the Turkish paper ‘‘Zaman'' that Sandzak was nothing like Bosnia. ‘‘We are much stronger here in all regards. Kosovo is round the corner. One spark is enough and everything will go up in flames,'' he added. Some twenty days ago another Turkish magazine ‘‘Ortadog'' published Ugljanin's statement where he said that Sandzak Muslims would not give up their flag with three crescents under any circumstances since help had been guaranteed to them.

His last rally was staged in Novi Pazar. After having chased away all correspondents of Belgrade press from the rally, Ugljanin once again made sweeping accusations against Serbian authorities and the Yugoslav Army. Since then the number one man of SDA, as party members call him, has been abroad working on internationalization of the Muslim question. It seems that he will extend his stay abroad especially considering the fact that on September 14 members of Serbian police arrived at his house with the warrant of arrest. An SDA delegation requested an explanation from the head of the Ministry of Interior Affairs in Novi Pazar, who referred them to the State Security in Kraljevo.

Those well informed about the situation in the region of Sandzak believe that the attempted arrest of the SDA leader is connected with the recent arrest of a group of armed people, among whom were Ugljanin's personal guards. Although about twenty people were officially reported to have been arrested, there are speculations that a number of Muslims arrested on charges of arms possession was much higher.

The people of Novi Pazar, Sjenica, Priboj and Novi Varos preoccupied with their worries and problems keep quiet waiting for better days to come. Leaders of political parties in Sandzak and prominent citizens have made different comments in regard to recent statements by Ugljanin, i.e. his predictions that Sandzak could go aflame like Bosnia.

‘‘There has been no improvement here and no one is giving in. There is an illusion of peace, but increased repression by Serbian military and police forces is continuing. The Muslims are afraid, reserved and silent,'' said Rasim Ljajic, the General Secretary of SDA for Sandzak. He also added that the attempted arrest of Ugljanin confirmed their claims that ‘‘the Serbian regime would try to put out any form of political articulation of Muslims from Sandzak.''

According to Radenko Jokovic, the MP of the Democratic Movement in Serbia (DEPOS) in the Federal Parliament, there are tendencies to remove Ugljanin, and replace him by some moderate politician, whose aim would be the same as Ugljanin's. ‘‘We still do not believe each other, but the situation is not that bad. No one is getting killed or looting,'' he said.

Mahmut Memic, the former aide to the Minister of Human and Minority Rights, was more optimistic. ‘‘The most important thing is that there is peace in Novi Pazar, that hundreds of strollers fill the town every evening, that stores are full of (expensive) goods, that there are crowded restaurants, from which music can be heard until late into the night. It's also important that there is talk that SDA will achieve nothing with its current leadership, and that some new winds have started to blow,'' Memic said.

When asked about war, both Serbs and Muslims reply, ‘‘If someone wants war, he may have it in his own backyard.''