The Joy of Returning to the Frankfurt Book Fair

This year's 47th Frankfurt Book Fair was not marked by Umberto Eco's new book, nor the discovery of a new Rushdie, or even by the shadow of some politician. This year's event could be classed as one of the quiet, traditional and routine fairs which raised no fuss and left no mark.

Our worries can be summed up in a single word: surviving. Under that slogan, just two Yugoslav publishers exhibited in Frankfurt: Vreme Knjige (with books, CDs and videos by Radio B-92) and Jugoslovenska Knjiga. Close by those stands were the stands of publishers from former Yugoslav republics: Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. Of all the former Yugoslav republics, only FR Yugoslavia did not have its own stand.

This might sound immodest and local patriotic, but the fact is that what Yugoslav publishers offered was much richer and more varied than publishers from other former Yugoslav republics. That was especially the case with books by domestic authors which are always the mainstay of every publisher. Add to that the fact that the Yugoslav publishing boom began in April-May 1994 and that you get another example of the vitality and strength of Yugoslav publishers.

Books of special interest were Mirko Kovac's Crystal Bars and Filip David's Pilgrims of the Sky and The Earth published by Bosanska Knjiga which is now run by Gavro Grahovac once head of Svetlost Sarajevo. Zagreb's Antibarbarus published Bora Cosic's new book Good Ruling along with the complete works of Hugo Pratt in 10 volumes. Slovenia's stand included books by a number of publishers in one catalogue from humanist sciences - Analekta, Katedra, Krt and Studia Humanitatis. The Slovenians, Croatians and Macedonians had joint catalogues showing who they were and where they're heading.

The first day of the fair saw a press conference about the publication of a new translation of the Quran into "Bosnian". The press conference was attended by Haris Silajdzic, Enes Karic (culture minister and translator of the publication) and the Bosnian defense minister. Seemingly, there's no better place to speak about war and peace (the truce) in Bosnia. The conference was given a totally different tone by Zdravko Grebo, editor in chief of Sarajevo's Radio Zid, who met Bosnian students from Frankfurt University along with colleagues from Zagreb, Ljubljana and Belgrade. They clearly voiced ideas on mutual cooperation and communication among people who opposed the war and nationalist hatred from the start.

Lord David Owen's book A Balkan Odyssey was promoted without much pomp. The book will be published by Britain's Golanc in November and a CD-ROM version will be on sale by the end of the year (actually two versions: one popular and one expanded with pictures of all documents and video images). Lord Owen is refusing interviews and waiting for the official promotion of the book. VREME learned that a Belgrade publisher is negotiating to publish the certainly interesting and important book just a few months after its international promotion.

A Serbian state TV crew was at the fair for the first time since 1991 but we have to wait and see what they filmed. Certainly, they didn't film Vreme Knjige's stand. When just two Yugoslav publishers exhibit in Frankfurt among 9,000 publishers it's hard to justify why one wasn't filmed or interviewed.

Unlike the RTS, German TV crews came to Vreme Knjige's stand twice and at least 20 reporters interviewed our authors.

Our joy of returning to the fair was shared by many people who haven't forgotten our language no matter what they call it now. They are the real measure of our culture which the state does not care about, even if only for propaganda reasons.

 

Interview: Nikola Viskovic

Split University professor and human rights activist, Nikola Viskovic, advocates the theory that in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia the authorities are anti-elitists whose basic characteristics are extreme authoritarianism and extreme nationalism.

"In our situation the two are inseparable. The Balkan democratures (demo-dictatorships) are impossible without creating demonic national enemies as entire nations, and the crazy idea of nationally pure states cannot be implemented without authoritarianism. Still, our opposition, the Budisa type for example, has to undergo violence, blackmail and corruption from the rulers to finally wisely conclude after years of being naive or rather being accomplices that we are falling to new levels of political primitivism as a society. The trouble with our opposition, because of its stupidity or cowardice and often because of it's unclear nationalist positions, is that it will take time for them to discover the elementary truth that Hitler's attitude towards the Jews is the psychomodel of an attitude towards the Germans themselves, that the attitude of Serb chauvinists towards Albanians, Croats and Moslems is the psychomodel of their attitude towards the Serbs, that the attitude of Croat chauvinists towards the Serbs is the psychomodel of their attitude towards Croats today and especially in the future. If our chauvinists didn't have Serbs in Croatia, they would have found Croats who do not share their obsessions, enough Jews to make their wish to rule and rob legitimate. Albanians, Croats and Serbs like Jews are undoubtedly needed by the authoritarian mentality."

What are the gravest consequences of the rule of those authoritarian and nationalist anti-elitists?

The migrations of populations are not a secondary and temporary result of military operations, as some naively assumed, but a permanent part of the criminal acts which is the result of either consciously drafted strategies (by the maddest extremists) or the logic of nationalist movements, the idea of a national state and terror as their instrument. Today it is obvious that those strategies and logic have been at work since the start of the war on all nationalist sides. That means that so-called ethnic cleansing, or in terms of international law genocide, or in moral terms a mass crime against adults and children, were not just the consequence of the war from the start but its very goal. And now we are at the end of that criminal process of movement.

How do you see the role of the international community in all that has happened?

The international community is agreeing to the forced migration of millions of people while at the same time hypocritically protesting ethnic cleansing and is doing all that it can to recognize the genocidally created states in order to achieve peace. Along with moral wrongs that is the wrong way. There can be no peace between states created on the misery of millions of people nor are those creations states in the modern sense of the word both in terms of the national minorities that were expelled from them and in terms of their own people.

 

Zvornik: Disorder Rules

"While there's war everything's allowed," two Sarajevo women said when asked where they got their goods which they sell with enthusiasm at Zvornik market.

The war, misery and exodus of Serbs from western Bosnia are not felt here. At least not too much. True, there is a declared state of war but that only means the authorities have greater jurisdiction and the people have more cause to suffer. And life has split into layers. Some have too much, others don't even have the basics. And the basic needs have been drastically reduced in the name of Serbdom and their own state. But as Jovan Mitrovic, president of the local war presidency, said: "the people have adjusted".

The length and prospects of that kind of life are evident in the words of Bishop Vasilije who recently told a congregation gathered to celebrate Zvornik's patron Saint: "We live in miserable times, worse than the times of the Ottoman empire. But God, who is merciful and who works miracles, will help."

The lobby of Mitrovic's office has little furniture, one picture on the wall and a secretary. The young president's office has slightly better furnishings, RS and Greek flags. He knows the answer to every question by heart. He says there's a state of war and stresses that work, order and discipline are at top levels and that there's no fooling around with directives. Everything has been signed by the RS president and you answer to the government. The changes, Mitrovic recites, are positive. There's more being done and more discipline in both the army and the economy.

80% of the budget is earmarked for the military. Companies have been classed as of republic-wide importance or local importance and they all have obligations to meet. Wherever those obligations were not met the management was sacked. VREME asked about strikes where workers backed dismissed directors. Mitrovic said criminal charges were filed against the organizers.

VREME asked about embezzlements and economic crimes. Some do abuse their positions but they will be dealt with. Are there any problems in drafting people, are there people who buy their way out of front line duty? He says there aren't, and if there are the corps command knows about them. There were some donors but we know where the money went. Contrary to that statement, policeman Spasoje Spasojevic publicly protested against people who were not drafted and are smuggling.

Refugees? Some 20,000. From central Bosnia, here for close to three years. They are virtually no different from the original locals who also number about the same. Red Cross aid goes to some 13,000 refugees and 5,000 locals three times a year.

Since SDS party chairman, Brana Grujic, was fired just before we got there we asked about the reasons? The answer: "he was transferred to new duties".

We found Grujic in the PP Crna Gora company which trades wholesale and retail and has its own bakery.

Brana Grujic was the first SDS chairman (since '90) and the first mayor of Zvornik. He lost his mayor's job on the day VREME visited Zvornik in September last year. He was personally ousted by Velibor Ostojic because of his beliefs. When Pale rejected the Contact Group plan and Serbia closed the Drina border, Grujic told us: "If bears are ruling Serbia, let them rule us as well. A common state is in our interest and its our only survival". We seem to be unlucky, Grujic lost his second post just prior to our arrival. Ostojic was in town again.

So how was he sacked? He said he staged it to get away from people he doesn't want to be with. They spent a year ousting him but he kept waiting for the right moment. And he got there, when the cease-fire was signed. Now they can draft him and send him to the front. He admits he has been offered new posts but added that he's asking for things just to play with them. He wants us to write that he won't stand at elections tomorrow with thieves and criminals. He backs up his statement with claims of good relations with Serbia and the hope that elections are close. Then, he says, we'll face off because people in Zvornik know who's who.

The maximum monthly wage in the RS is 136 Dinars. Half in cash, half in coupons which are worth up to 30% less in shops. We asked Mitrovic how people lived off that money? "As they have to," he said. Grujic said everyone was smuggling. And Officials as well? They get by, he said and put his hand into a pocket.

The people? The state owned Velepromet store is big and seems even bigger because it's so empty. There are just some juice cartons, biscuits and macaroni. The prices are sky high. A saleswoman says they have to raise the prices because they have to take coupons. Private stores don't and they have everything. The saleswoman is reserved. She lives with her husband and daughter. Her husband lost his job and she hasn't been paid since February. She adds aside: "Who do I defend, everyone's to blame for this, honest people are suffering."

 

The Media in Croatia

Journalists who openly say they lie for Croatia failed to grab control of the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND). The 35th electoral assembly was mostly quiet with just a few sparks and it elected Jagoda Vukusic, head of the Novi List Rijeka bureau in Zagreb, as president. Her paper is considered independent or even opposition.

The ruling HDZ party decided to leave the HND alone and deal with areas which truly control the media. That contempt for the HND was best illustrated by President Franjo Tudjman who invited the editors in chief and commentators of the main Croatian media to his presidential palace at the same time as the HND assembly was held. A statement told us that Tudjman is counting on the Croatian television and radio, Hina news agency, Vjesnik, Vecernji List, Slobodna dalmacija, Drzavnost, Obzor, Hrvatsko SLovo, Velebit and Zalac newspapers. So the Croatian president feels that the main Croatian media include his party's newspaper Obzor which is a failed attempt by the HDZ to find a replacement for Danas weekly, Hrvatsko Slovo published by the Croatian writers' association, Velebit - the Croatian army newspaper and Zalac - an allegedly satirical paper. All of them together barely have a circulation of 10,000. But, at the same time since the accent was on Croatian, Novi List was not invited to the palace although it has a circulation double the size of Vjesnik. There was also no one from the most influential weekly Globus, or most critical Feral Tribune and many, many others. Why was the meeting held and why were those editors and commentators invited isn't hard to figure out since the elections are close.

What happened to Zagreb's once independent Youth TV channel (now called Open TV) is indicative. Its majority shareholder is Tudjman's former advisor.

There are an increasing number of signs that the current owner of Slobodna dalmacija, HDZ member Miroslav Kutle, wants to buy a majority of shares in Globus and become the owner of Tisak, the biggest distribution house.

The HDZ is prepared to do many things and that is shown in the fact that Marija Peakic-Mikuljan, the HDZ public relations chief, has been appointed to head the Croatian TV election coverage desk. Since all the editors and directors of the Croatian national TV are Tudjman's confidantes it isn't hard to figure out why the station decided to allow political parties just one hour altogether of air time for their election campaigns and not an hour each as election regulations proscribe. By some miracle the republican election commission had a different opinion.

The ban on airing three videos paid for by the Croatian Social Liberal party falls into the same category. The TV authorities refused to air the videos explaining that they irritate the public and that the claims made in them are not true. The election commission intervened and ruled that there is no reason not to air the videos.

Croatian journalists won independence for their association but what's the use of that when the authorities have enough political commissars to deal with that majority. The few independent media, along with the independent association, can be used as a fine alibi to prove that there is enough democracy in Croatia.