The Muslimmuslim War

While sporadic clashes are reproted in Centaral Bosnia in spite of a ceasefire, the war between Muslims in the divided Bihac enclave, Northwestern Bosnia, rages unabated. There are indications that the 5th Corps of the BosniaHerzegovina Army has taken advantage of the overall ceasefire in Bosnia to bring in extra forces from the front against Serbs and so win a speedy victory against AP Western Bosnia.

Because of a shortage of ammunition (in spite of factories in Cazin which are turning out bullets), the 5th Corps under the command of Atif Dudakovic tried to achieve its goal with strong attacks on certain parts of the front. In mid June Dudakovic's troops managed to break through the AP Western Bosnia's first line of defence at positions held by the 3rd Brigade and a little later at the point held by the 3rd and 4th Brigades near Pecigrad and Cukarica. As a result the front line was moved a few kilometers towards Velika Kladusa, while the capture of the strategic height of Golubinac opened the possibility for significant strikes against AP Western Bosnia's troops under Fikret Abdic.

The proximity of the front, only a ten minute drive south of Velika Kladusa has endangered the region's capital. However, regardless of the positions they hold, both sides have found themselves in a cul de sac. While Izetbegovic's elite 5th Corps is fiercely attacking, ordinary reservists, mostly mobilized peasants are much less enthusiastic and often in doubt who they are really fighting.

The approaches to the city are being fiercely defended by peasants from nearby villages, who are defending their homes. ``What can I do? Let some bums destroy my house after thirty years of work with a LAW!'' said one of the locals summing up their dilemmas.

Many of Abdic's soldiers (who were in the 5th Corps until recently) claim that Izetbegovic's 25,000strong force deployed in the Bihac enclave have only one multiplerocket launcher, one big caliber gun and a rather dilapidated T55 tank. Abdic's army has fewer (7,00010,000), but better armed troops. They have three museum piecesRussian T34 tanks, and according to military observers, nine heavy artillery pieces and several rocket launchers. Abdic's army used their arms to greater effect late last June for the first time. Abdic's units recently counterattacked and captured part of the territory around Skokovo.

The ninemonth conflict has taken the toll of 500 dead and over 1,000 wounded. Over fifty soldiers were killed in recent battles, and most of them are lying where they fell in no man's land. Efforts by military observers and UNPROFOR at bringing in the bodies during the cease fire proved futile.

The blockade of UNPROFOR's French battalion, reports of battles between Fikret Abdic's supporters (his commandos are allegedly operating inside Bihac) and Izetbegovic's troops, and reports launched by the Bosnian media have further confused the impression concerning the real state of affairs in the enclave.

Various sources confirmed there were clashes in Bihac between forces loyal to Abdic and those loyal to the authorities in Sarajevo. This was followed by a raid against Abdic's supporters, while the French battalion was blocked in its barracks to prevent them witnessing the clashes. AP Western Bosnia spokesmen deny that their commandos infiltrated the area and claim that the whole clash was planned and staged by the 5th Corps with the aim of flushing out and ``eliminating'' supporters of AP Western Bosnia during the ``rebellion.'' The problem arose when this staged ``rebellion'' got out of control. Both sides must be holding quite a number of political prisoners. We learned during talks with religious leaders, that the authorities recently imprisoned several supporters of Alija Izetbegovic who distributed antiAP Western Bosnia leaflets in Velika Kladusa.

War is also being waged in the field of religion. Of the 28 religious officials in Velika Kladusa, one fled to Bihac while the others who support the AP Western Bosnia have been practically excommunicated. The Mufti in Bihac has forbidden a show of respect for dead AP Western Bosnia soldiers. For this same reason, the Islamic Community in Velika Kladusa cannot buy the Korans it needs abroad, and accuses the ``Shi'ites'' and ``fundamentalists.'' In this way the war is taking on elements of an rift between the ``Shi'ites'' and the ``Sunnites,'' which until recently, when practically all the Muslims in the territory of the former Yugoslavia were ``Sunnites,'' was unknown and unthinkable.

To make matters worse, peace negotiations between the warring sides have failed; partly because of the apathy of the international community which left the Bosnian leadership in Sarajevo to resolve this particular war as it wished, and partly because of the impossibility of conducting negotiations during an offensive. The chasm is unbridgeable for the time being, among other things, because supporters of AP Western Bosnia believe that Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic, ``the most realistic of all Bosnian politicians, still does not have sufficient freedom in proposing some kind of an acceptable compromise without the approval of hardline Alija Izetbegovic.'' All this aside, it seems that the time allotted to Izetbegovic by the international community to pacify Abdic's AP Western Bosnia, is running out. Igor Mekina

Portrait of Nikola Koljevic, Bosnian Serb Republic VicePresident

YEAR AND PLACE OF BIRTH: 1936, Banja Luka.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY: Comes from a respectable and very patriarchal merchant family, that sought refuge in Serbia fleeing before Ustashi pogroms in 1941. Koljevic grew up and was educated in Belgrade. Until 1990 he was politically inactive. He taught Literature at Sarajevo University and was respected as an authority on Shakespeare, about whose work he has written several books. Koljevic is an antiCommunist and a very religious man.

HOW HE ENTERED POLITICS: When asked by old friends, former Yugoslav President and author Dobrica Cosic and Bosnian Serb leader and psychiatrist Radovan Karadzic, who felt the need to have a man of Koljevic's reputation in the leadership of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDSthe party of Bosnian Serbs).

WHAT HIS POLITICAL MOTIVES WERE: To ``make Serbs aware and wrench them away from Communism and socalled Yugoslavianism.''

HIS MESSAGE TO THE SERBS: ``Muslims are your neighbors, and neighbors can be closer than brethren. The Muslim and Croat minorities living among you will reflect your honesty and integrity.'' (Bileca, May 1991)

HIS MESSAGE TO THE MUSLIMS: ``Only now, that the first signs of democracy have appeared, can we live together.'' Later events proved him wrong, even though the majority expressed their loyalty to Karadzic and fought with the Serbs against the Croats. By late 1992, Muslims in Eastern Herzegovina had been robbed, killed or expelled from the entire region.

HIS ACTIVITIES SINCE THE START OF THE WAR: He travelled the world in an effort to defend the Serbian cause in Bosnia in a civilized manner. Koljevic signed one of the most embarrassing concessions made by the Serbian side during the war in Bosniathe handing over of Sarajevo Airport to UNPROFOR.

WHAT MAKES HIM THE RIGHT MAN TO TAKE KARADZIC'S PLACE: Above all his reputation of a ``dove'' among the ``hawks'' in Pale (Bosnian Serb political center): he has never spoken of the Muslims rudely and once, to general consternation, said that: ``Serbs and Muslims have much in common.'' Koljevic publicly condemned the shelling of Srebrenica as ``unnecessary.'' He advocates a Serbian ``realpolitik'' line in Bosnia. Koljevic is the only ``Belgrade student'' in the Bosnian Serb leadership, and the only one who has remained on good terms with Dobrica Cosic after the Bosnian Serb Assembly turned down the VanceOwen plan. Koljevic is one the rare men whose name is not linked to war crimes, gambling and corruption scandals. Lately he has often been seen in the company of Bosnian Serb Army Commander General Ratko Mladic.

WHAT MAKES HIM UNSUITABLE: As a politician he lacks wider support among the military and political structures in the Bosnian Serb Republic, and as an intellectual is not greatly popular with the masses. Lately he has made several visits to his home town of Banja Luka. Because of his long absence the local power structures still don't recognize him as their representative.

VIEWS ON KARADZIC: ``He is a man who knows how to listen carefully to other people's views and arguments, and react very quickly. I have never seen anybody get the better of him, either at meetings or negotiations.''

VIEWS ON MILOSEVIC: ``Without a doubt, he has done much towards the awakening of the Serbian people's awareness and has enjoyed general support, even adoration. But, he is surrounded by people who shouldn't be near him and to whom he is indebted for their support at the 8th Session of the League of Communists of Serbia.''

IF HE WERE TO TAKE KARADZIC'S PLACE, COULD KOLJEVIC STOP THE WAR IN BOSNIA: ``The destruction of war follows its own logic, and once this avalanche gets started then no one can stop it'' (the Belgrade biweekly ``Duga,'' May 1992).

WHAT HE SHOULD READ ONCE AGAIN: ``Macbeth'' and ``Richard III,'' especially Richard's monologue in the third scene of the last act: What, do I fear myself? there's none else by.