Fear Epidemic

Professor of Psychiatry at Belgrade University Ljubomir Eric says that fear is becoming an epidemic in this region and that the time of fear is yet to come, like after every war. People have developed not only fear but also doubts about the uncertain future - where to go, whom to love or hate, whom to support, who are our friends and enemies, do we want war or peace, a civil or a national state. The confusion is enormous.

- How much have the explosion of nationalism and outbreak of war contributed to fear?

In a war, fear is reduced to the lowest possible level. It is a situation in which people struggle for survival. The soul is destroyed by the pre-war and especially post-war periods in which one feels threatened, hopeless and has to face the consequences of the war, such as the destruction of the family, death, problems of existence.

Nationalism and chauvinism caused hatred and all of a sudden other people became enemies. Hatred was first directed against the closest ones and then spread out to the rest of the world. Mobilization and the government's proclamations saying we were not at war made hundreds of thousands of young people leave the country. This, too, is a consequence of enormous fear.

- You say that fear is part of the normal everyday life. For how long can one sustain fear without feeling its effects on his mental health and behaviour?

The feeling of fear is the most unpleasant state that one can experience. If it lasts long, it destroys the soul and becomes psycho-pathologic. People spontaneously defend themselves from fear. But there are limits to how much one can bear. We live in an environment and a society in which the institutions of the system keep generating fear. And what is happening? People seek comfort in alcohol, drugs, excessive use of tablets.

We are now, actually, shifting from the state of acute fear to apathy, shutting ourselves in our homes, close circles, showing no ambition at work. This leads to nothing good. The retreat of the righteous ones makes room for the "fearless" who are able and willing to do anything, which causes even greater fear.

- How come they are not depressed and how come they do not feel fear?

They have no conscience. Most people do have conscience - it is a quality of upbringing, the superego, something that a person develops since his birth and a nation for centuries. The man with conscience is willing to feel ashamed, to say that he feels guilty for everything that members of his nation have done. Since they have conscience, they retreat. And those who haven't suddenly become leaders, although with their qualities they could not be leaders in a normal system.

- We live in a time of great confusions and migrations. People keep moving out of the country. Is this the most radical system of one's defence?

The change of habitat and separation of the family causes greatest fear. We are speaking about the emotions which give one security and trust which he gained during his lifetime through love in the family and the environment. If all this is changed forcibly and due to fear, one becomes a candidate for a serious mental disorder. Fear of separation and of going away causes new fear - fear of adjustment to the new environment. Besides, those who were righteous and who could carry out progress, establish a new system of values - have left the country.

I think we are approaching the culmination of fear. Take only the fear of the forthcoming elections. People are in panic for what will happen, whether the multi-party system will be cancelled, what will happen unless a legal state is established, if migration does not cease, if the quality of life does not improve. Shall we join the world. These are real and great fears, disastrous for the present and the future development.

Protests in Tuzla

Several-day long protest of the exiled Srebrenica citizens in the Tuzla-Drina Valley Canton has culminated with violence and a "clash" of the demonstrators and the police who were defending the Cantonal Government building.

The protests actually began a few months ago in Vozuca, a village near Zavidovici. The exiles were demanding better conditions for themselves and their children, more food, clothing, shoes, adequate accommodation and health care. Some 1,800 people from Srebrenica were placed in the destroyed village of Vozuca which was the front line until recently. Their days in exile passed without electricity, school, health care. Feeling dissatisfied and abandoned, the people from Srebrenica blocked the Tuzla-Zavidovici-Zenica road demanding from the Bosnian authorities to resolve their status. Former minister for refugees Muharem Cero visited them and promised their situation would improve shortly. However, record remains that the first protest of the Srebrenica exiles was based on social issues and the question of what happened to the eight to nine thousand men who disappeared after Karadzic had seized Srebrenica.

The authorities started some activities concerning the improvement of the material status of the exiles in Vozuca, but those were only minor attempts. At the end of last and the beginning of this month, thousands of Srebrenica exiles now living in the Tuzla area started protesting outside the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) building in Tuzla. The demonstrators demanded that the ICRC tell them the truth about the disappeared Srebrenica citizens. After they got the bureaucratic reply that the ICRC were "working on it," they broke into the building and destroyed the ground floor. ICRC officers shut themselves in the offices on the upper floors of the building, all the roads in and out of Tuzla were blocked for hours.

According to many of the exiles, Srebrenica was an object of trade for the Bosnian government who did not let them go abroad after the town was seized, but kept them "for show" in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

- Everything is clear now! They didn't let us go so they could get humanitarian aid and money over our backs. The donations were not used for us, the authorities kept them for themselves. That money was not spent on us! We are thirsty, hungry, we sleep in tents in this cold, without clothes, shoes, enough food - said Zejneba Mesic from Srebrenica, now placed in the elementary school building in Zivinice. Many of the demonstrators were in uniforms - they were the soldiers who had survived the Srebrenica golgotha. They accused the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the state leadership of theft and malversations.

The state-controlled media have, of course, kept quiet about the sharp criticism of the current government and the socio-political demands of the Srebrenica exiles. The information published by the state-controlled Radio-Television Bosnia-Herzegovina and the newspapers close to the ruling circles was edited so as to show that the people from Srebrenica were angry with the international community because of the issues which had arisen.

Another Bosnia in Another Serbia

Eleven citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina, members of Circle 99 from Sarajevo and the Civic Forum from Tuzla came to FR Yugoslavia via the IFOR bridge on the Sava. Bosnians got 30 day visas. During their visit to the FRY is scheduled to tour Belgrade, Novi Sad, Subotica, Kragujevac, Novi Pazar, Podgorica and other places where tribunals will be held with people who are interested in Bosnia. The Bosnians had plenty of time to talk to everyone including VREME.

They see the Dayton peace with some reservations; Nada Mladina, a Tuzla doctor, warned that the peace agreement "was ordered under threats" sharing anxieties that the whole thing will last until the November elections in the US. The Bosnians unanimously warned of the danger of an election victory by nationalist parties later this year: they feel that nationalist parties will win again and then disappear from the political scene. Circle 99, Sarajevo, chairman Vlatko Dolecek said the Bosnians shouldn't allow themselves "to be tricked again" referring to 1990 elections when nationalist parties got together. That line of thought is encouraged by events in Banja Luka, i.e. the rapprochement of opposition parties from the Bosnian Serb Republic (RS) and Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and speculation of possible joint election appearances with liberal, civic platforms. Dolecek expressed the problem of inter-dependency best: "We are happy to see every democratic step in Serbia and Croatia because we can't live without our surroundings". He hit on the essence of the problem: as long as the SPS and HDZ continue acting like God given rulers of Serbia and Croatia, the SDA won't be able to resist the same temptation. And that's more proof that everyone in the Balkans is the same: we have the same nationalist and civic democrats, criminals and unarmed civilians and are not split into Serbs, Croats, Bosnian Moslems.

The Moral issue is: is there any sense to coming here and preaching to converts, i.e. people who expressed solidarity with the Bosnians from the start? The fact that the Bosnians got a warm welcome everywhere (except from a group of followers of Party of Democratic Action (SDA) leader Sulejman Ugljanin in Novi Pazar, Sandzak) shows that there is no difference. There is friction even between people who think the same and that has its cause in the unaviodable temptation to agree to collective responsibility or the vanity of self-righteousness.

The Bosnians and their hosts showed that it is possible to preserve generosity, reason and basic politeness which borders on heroism. Another Bosnia and another Serbia met after three years and concluded that the hard times are yet to come.

The Delegation

Verica Vukotic, Vehid Sehic, Zeljko Ricka, Nikola Panjevic, Ante Raos, Nada Mladina, Mladen Pandurevic, Slavko Santic, Sead Fetahagic, Vlatko Dolecek and Ratomir Jovicic