Balance of Fear

No people can feel at ease there any longer. I believe that Serbs, Croatians and Moslems, in the course of centuries, learned how to recognize that hatred by the most subtle indications, by almost unconscious gestures, imperceptible to the outsiders. They react to each other in the way a stranger cannot understand. A single word can provoke a fierce argument, liberating the energy of all ancient quarrels.

In accordance with that fact, it makes no difference at all what nation you belong to in Bosnia. The illusion that the Serbs are the ones who are presently spoiling the delicate balance cannot be explained solely by the latest moves of Radovan Karadzic (SDS /Serbian Democratic Party/ leader in Bosnia). His refined senses must have been warning him for years about the hostility of the Moslems and their switch to the other, less dangerous side. But, Karadzic is surely just the emissary of a strong outside influence, being slavishly loyal to Milosevic and to his plans for Great Serbia.

This tall man, with longish grey hair, looking more like a folk-singer than a psychiatrist, who would go unnoticed in Nashville, turned into the inviolable leader of the Serbs in Bosnia. And not because he knows how to touch the people's soul, but because all the Bosnian leaders are inviolable, like no place else. They are made such by the people's fear. His latest move was to create a Serbian parliament within the already existing Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to announce a referendum for "staying in Yugoslavia". The results are known in advance: they will be just the same as has been case with all the previous referendums held all over this country. It is still unknown what they could possibly change. What is to be done with the Serbs who wish to stay in what is left of Yugoslavia, whereas the majority of other nations wish to see Bosnia become a sovereign state?

He has been condemned for not being a "pure-bred" Bosnian (he originates from Montenegro) and for trying to make up for the centuries old "historical injustice", which has for long been recognized as impossible. He opposed the decision of the Bosnian Parliament concerning the proclamation of independence of Bosnia and Hercegovina without the approval of the Serbian MP's. The decision itself was made after the series of proclamations of the Serbian autonomous regions within the borders of Bosnia ... which, again, was the result of...

Karadzic is the one who wants Bosnia to be what it is not. He is the last Milosevic's hope that the unequivocal Hague declaration about the borders could be swayed.

The Hague is Bosnia's last hope that its borders and peace could be preserved. But Karadzic has gone too far and made the situation in Bosnia difficult to be solved by international threats, even in case Milosevic eventually realizes that it has become too dangerous to persist with the idea of Great Serbia. Bosnia is being saturated with arms, and there is also the unpredictable Army, which no longer knows what it is supposed to be doing.

The underlying logic would never lead into war, since the Serbs from Bosnia still keep in mind that they are Bosnians, that the Moslems are all around them and that they are here to stay. The vision of the great Serbian state never caused the enthusiasm that existed at the time of the creation of Yugoslavia. The words "liberation" and "unification" then seemed pure and true, they were aimed at a great, worn-out empire and had the strength to link the peoples of the same language and similar fate. The positive energy of rapprochement was activated. But today, at least in Bosnia, the idea of Great Serbia means an unending war.

What is to be done with the country of hatred, which Andric once called unconscious, inbred, endemic? What is to be done with that hatred? As a politician, Karadzic is trying to divide its peoples. As a psychiatrist, he would probably suggest them to fully face up to the hatred, to grasp its roots, to open up all the centuries old wounds and scars, to reveal all that has been forgotten and suppressed. Many believe, even without the help of psychiatry, that burying the places of mass execution and forgetting the crimes were the communists' greatest sins, for which the intolerance we are witnessing today simply had to burst out twice as strongly. Everyone is busy with exhumations, with counting and listing the victims of the civil war.

The political wisdom, and even the common sense, would never advise that, although the communists may have exaggerated in suppressing the inter-national crimes. I doubt Sigmund Freud himself would advise that and he new that the whole civilization is based on taboos. In any case, whole nations can never be subjected to psychotherapy. What may be the cure for an individual is lethal for the nation. The revenge became the principal war motive.

Although this war was initiated by the power-loving instincts, that could precisely be the reason for the downfall of the political leadership. Milosevic does not seem to understand that the Serbs outside Serbia are keeping his hands tied, whereas his leaders are discovering statesmen potential and the desire for complete independence. Milan Babic (President of Kninska krajina) has already expressed this, and Karadzic is expected to do the same. Momir Bulatovic (the President of Montenegro) was governed by the same motives. Children grow up and inevitably one day leave their parents' home.

After the Hague, Milosevic discreetly stopped arguing that all Serbs had to live in one state, which is why he started the war in the first place. That notion was replaced by another one which concerns the right to stay in Yugoslavia, which sounds less aggressive, but ridiculous all the same, since Yugoslavia does not exist any more and since it is common knowledge to what extent he himself contributed to it. Recently, he was often forced to communicate with the world, and no doubt has realized that his power has limits. A man of his standing may find some gratification in the fact that everybody is against him, but it is now beginning to question his instinct for survival. I believe that he is prepared to accept the Hague agreement, as Milan Babic claims, with an attempt to postpone it and secure an insignificant concession. This will only strengthen his positions in Serbia. Despite the atmosphere of patriotic exaltation, one can detect the fear of the people from its own political leadership and its suicidal politics. Milosevic will have a hard time when the people finally venture to ask for an explanation why he started this war in the first place.