Spies Under the Same Roof

In the early morning of August 8, an agreement was reached in Sarajevo regarding the allotment of ambassadors’ posts of Bosnia and Herzegovina according to the Dayton Agreement. "The American Destroyer", Holbrook’s nickname in Bosnia, negotiated until four o’clock in the morning with three members of the Bosnian Parliament. Many are inclined to think that the atmosphere resembled Dayton negotiations. "It was difficult", stated Holbrook, after all was said and done, "some people raised their voices. Izetbegovic and Krajisnik were cracking jokes and calling each other names. Krajisnik said that he made a few mistakes in Dayton. He was against the Dayton Agreement and some of its decisions, especially the understanding reached regarding Sarajevo".

The result of this sleepless night was the agreement that Muslims get 13, Serbs 11, and Croats 9 ambassadors’ posts. Far from the public eye, negotiations on the diplomatic and consular missions have been going on for more than six months. After the Sintra deadline for an agreement was broken on August 1, the High Representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Karlos Vestendorp, advised all members of the international community to stop relations with ambassadors of Bosnia and Herzegovina by way of sanctions. The directive was followed by USA and members of the European Union, so that Bosnia found itself in its own kind of diplomatic isolation. Of course, such a measure was most to the advantage of the Muslim side, which during the war was able to name all ambassadors because Serbs, and for a while Croats also, did not participate in the government. Admittedly, even though the DPK network was not entirely made up of one ethnic group, it still fought for Muslim interests, as they like to put it here. Evidently, only the Muslims found satisfaction in such interests.

After the deadline was broken, it was suggested in Sarajevo that "the Serbs are insatiable", making demands that half of the posts in G-7 countries be allotted to them, including Washington, of course. Both partners in the federation, the Muslims and the Croats, deemed that as unacceptable and negotiations ground to a halt. After a flood of statements regarding the suspension of relations with ambassadors, America again decided to initiate another diplomatic blitz campaign. Izetbegovic evidently ceded, while the allotment of ambassadors’ posts suggests that the final agreement is not far from the initial Serb demand. Among local politicians, no one commented on the allotments, while the media were unanimous in their assessment of Serb success. "Vecernje Novine" printed across their front page the headline "Small Step for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Big Leap for Republika Srpska". Admittedly, the text does emphasize the positive fact that an SDS representative will be at the very source in Washington, and will get first hand information about American attitudes toward Bosnia. Publicly, Izetbegovic is criticized for the fact that Muslims only received one mission in the contact group countries, while they accepted a majority of missions in Muslim countries. There are even opinions that Izetbegovic only fought to have his protégé Muhamed Sacirbey kept in the United Nations.

MP’s are obligated to act on personnel changes two weeks hence, at the latest — meaning August 22. None of the sides has issued any information yet on who might go where. However, it is completely clear that the majority of ambassadors will be proven party officials. In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina there are four, or more correctly three main currents because the Serb side has not yet been fully accepted. These are two strongly nationalist currents, one Muslim, the other Croat, and a so-called civic current. It is the latter current which is the most dissatisfied with this agreement, because it was hoping that if the nationalist principle does not completely win out, a certain number of positions will be occupied by more tolerant people who will manage to cooperate with their first associates. That is to say, embassies will probably be organized according to the principle that the ambassador is of one nationality, the chargé d’affaires of another, and the first secretary of yet another. It is difficult to imagine how the representatives of SDA, SDS and HDZ will live under the same roof, doing such a responsible job with diametrically opposed interests. Probably, everyone will be getting instructions from "their" part of the Ministry, and it is not beyond the realm of imagination that they will be spying on each other. Even though MP’s were told that people who are going to scheme and protect only their own interests will not be tolerated in ambassadors’ posts, these posts will still be important for each of the three parties. Even in former Yugoslavia, ambassadors protected more or less republican interests, which was reflected by the fact that a company from a given republic would sooner get a contract in a country where it had "its own" ambassador, or in the fact that an ambassador would take better care of nationals from his republic, than of those from other republics. It is clear that this will become even more emphasized now, and that embassies will become places for disseminating "ethnic" truths about Bosnia. In any case, were it not so, clashes would not have been going on for months now over the question of ambassadors’ posts.

No one is saying anything on or off record about actual personnel changes that will be taking place. Muslims have the highest number of available diplomats. Besides the newfangled diplomats, the greater part of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian diplomatic corps is made up of Muslims, and even of a few Serbs and Croats. Admittedly, the latter two do not enjoy the trust of SDA, and can hardly be expected to receive important posts. However, their experience as advisers will be very valuable.

DIPLOMATIC CORPS: Serb diplomats from Bosnia and Herzegovina for the most part did not back up SDS, and many stayed in Belgrade. The Republika Srpska Government recently placed an ad for diplomatic jobs in DKP, and organized a seminar in Bjeljine on diplomacy. However, it is clear that young and hastily trained diplomats will not be able to bare the brunt of the work that needs to be done. It is not unthinkable that RS will elicit diplomatic help from Belgrade. It is interesting that Sarajevo is more concerned with who will be named on the Serb side, than on the Muslim side. It is said that the present Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, the former journalist Dragan Bozanic, has been gravely disappointed in his hopes of becoming ambassador to London. Nenad Kecmanovic is again being mentioned. He should become nothing less than Ambassador to Washington because of his considerable influence. The Croat part of HDZ is experiencing greatest difficulties in Bosnia and Herzegovina as throughout the entire war it has been having personnel troubles in the Bosnian government because of its Hercegovinian foundation, with Jadranko Prlic as its only representative who could be said to have diplomatic manners. It is clear that Bosnian Croats will directly consult Zagreb. They might even be allowed to borrow Croatian diplomats who come from Bosnia. The interests of Bosnian Croats and Croatians are considerably closer than those of Bosnian Serbs and Serbians.

It is clear that in the new diplomatic corps there will be no place for the present Bosnian ambassador to the U.S., Sven Alkalai (a Jew), or, for that matter, for Nikola Kovac in Paris, or Ugljesa Uzelac in Ljubljana (both Serbs). In the agreed national (party) allotments these people will no longer have ambassadorial roles to play. Their recall from their present posts will be one of the last rifts in a unified Bosnia and Herzegovina, the way we have know it for the last 50 years.