Bosnian Studies: Journal for Research of Bosnian Thought and Culture
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Denial of Genocide and Other War Crimes Committed in Bosnia as a Form of Collective Memory
Get PDFThis article discusses the politics of remembering and forgetting in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. I argue that the denial of genocide and other atrocities committed in the country between 1992 and 1995 acts as a form of collective memory, or anti-memory. Denial takes place within the context of the social identity construction of the victim group, and is part of the processes of ‘sanitizing’ the national identity narrative of the perpetrators. Denial is thus the logical extension of the social construction of the victim group as a mortal threat; physical annihilation is followed by a process which aims to portray the victims as deserving of their fate, and to recast the perpetrators’ actions as heroic deeds. The deliberate selection of which facts are to be remembered and which are to be forgotten is the underlying process which connects denial and national narrative construction. In order to preserve a coherent grand narrative of national identity, it is necessary to omit certain facts from the collective historical memory, and to regulate which topics are to be spoken about, and which are to be avoided. Denial, therefore, is a form of memory. It is a conscientious decision on how certain events are to be remembered
"Bosnianness Or Anti-Bosnianness, That Is the Question": A Discourse On Bosnianess by Senadin Lavić, Faculty of Political Sciences (2020)
Get PDFThe book, A Discourse On Bosnianness, by the author Senadin Lavić, analyzes and with methodological precision, positions the concepts of nations and states on the one hand, and ethnicity and people on the other. The book is divided into twelve chapters, where Lavić begins with a prolegomenon for the Bosnian nation and later analyzes its identity, history and emblems. In the following chapters, Lavić then analyzes Bosniak folk cultural forms and religious consciousness and introduces them to the discourse on the Bosniak question
The Bosnian Genocide and the Srebrenica massacre
Get PDFThis paper aims to place the Srebrenica massacre in its broader context, both in terms of its place in the Bosnian war, and theoretically. The Srebrenica massacre is the only war crime of the Bosnian war that has, in legal terms, been solidly confirmed to have constituted genocide. In the ICTY, 2001 convicted Radislav Krstic of complicity in genocide for his role in the Srebrenica massacre, thereby establishing the fact of the Srebrenica genocide. The ICJ, in its ruling of 2007 in Bosnia vs Serbia, explicitly stated that the Srebrenica massacre was an act of genocide. However, the ICJ in the same ruling stated that other massacres of the Bosnian war, in particular those of 1992 when Bosnian Serb military forces were formally under Belgrade’s command, were not genocide. The ICTY has so far failed to convict any suspect of genocide except in relation to the Srebrenica massacre. Consequently, the Srebrenica massacre has assumed the status of a crime apart in the Bosnian war.
 
The Denial of Genocide in Srebrenica in the Context of Strengthening Neo-fascism and Relativization of the Holocaust in Europe
Get PDFThe denial of the 1995 genocide against Bosniaks in the UN security zone of Srebrenica, has continued uninterrupted for 25 years. This denial has taken various forms and manifestations during that time; from denying the extent and character of crimes and the number of victims, to not accepting relevant court verdicts and especially, ignoring the consequences of genocide. As time passes, we are beginning to get the impression that an additional phase to the denial of the genocide in Srebrenica has emerged, in which, through the glorification of convicted war criminals and their affirmation in society, genocide is affirmed as an acceptable procedure and activity.
We believe that this 25-year period of persistent denial, and even celebration of the genocide in Srebrenica, largely corresponds to the strengthening of neo-fascist and right-wing ideas and movements in European countries, which has been accompanied by an increasingly louder denial and relativization of the Holocaust.
In this paper, we intend to analyze the connection between these phenomena, because we believe that the ideas pedaled by deniers of the genocide in Srebrenica, are significantly suited to strengthening the neo-fascism and Holocaust denial and are using this atmosphere to intensify genocide denial against Bosniaks and yet paradoxically, affirm the genocide, by glorifying the convicted war criminals and their ideas
Srebrenica is not a Metaphor : The Significance of the Srebrenica Memorial Center - Potočari for Understanding Genocide
Get PDFThe author will emphasize the importance of both the existence and the further development of the Srebrenica - Potočari Memorial Center, in the context of the continued need to understand the genocide that took place in and around Srebrenica, from the aspect of building a culture of remembrance throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). This is necessary in order to continue fighting the ongoing genocide denial. At first glance, a culture of remembrance presupposes immobility and focus on the past to some, but it is essentially dynamic, and connects three temporal dimensions: it evokes the present, refers to the past but always deliberates over the future. In this paper, the emphasis is placed on the concept of the place of remembrance, the lieu de memoire as introduced by the historian Pierre Nora. In this sense, a place of remembrance such as the Srebrenica - Potočari Memorial Center is an expression of a process in which people are no longer just immersed in their past but read and analyze it in the present. Furthermore, looking to the future, they also become mediators of relations between people and communities, which in sociological theory is an important issue of social relations. The author of this paper emphasizes that collective memory in the specific case of genocide in and around Srebrenica is only possible when the social relations around the building (Srebrenica - Potočari Memorial Center) crystallize, which is then much more than just the content of the culture of remembrance
The Alienation from Citizenship in Bosnia and Herzegovina: From Criticism of the Constitution to Actual Participation
Get PDFRemaining true to the spirit and logic of the war-torn territories, the Dayton Peace Agreement highlights the interdependence of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (B&H) 'local' problems with the wider region’s problems, and indeed, global problems. 25 years after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, we have gained a democracy without a people, a democracy with MP’s defined by their ethnicity, who, at their discretion, interpret the will of the people and dispose of the mandate entrusted to them by their convictions. This paper aims to open up the question of whether the Dayton Constitution alienated B&H’s citizens from their political community. Pointing to the process of alienation from citizenship, which is, among other things, caused by a constitutional architecture that does not conceive of the citizen as an abstract category, the author focuses more on the conditions in which voters are denied real political participation. In theoretical terms, this participation would mean not only resistance to ethnonationalism, but also the creation of opportunities for citizens to unite and make political-strategic, and long-term decisions important for the future of B&H
Modern Political History of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Get PDFSince Bosnia and Herzegovina’s declaration of independence in 1995, its path has been a rocky one. Unwillingness by the international community to stand by the central government and stand in the way of the neighboring states of Serbia and Croatia’s territorial pretensions, produced a succession of ceasefire agreements, culminating in the final, Dayton Peace Agreement. Each of these agreements espoused the ethnic principle as the guiding philosophy for the organization of the state. The post-war period demonstrates that despite the passage of time, the principle of organization of multi-ethnic state along ethnic lines presents a stumbling block to the functioning of the political, economic and social life in the country. The political history of post-independence Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) therefore reads as a history of protracted political paralysis, with no hope of rectifying the problems without another forceful intervention of the international community
Kiwi and the Dervish: A Short History of Bosnian Settlement in New Zealand
Get PDFEmigration from Bosnia-Herzegovina to New Zealand invariably affects, and often undermines, the core religious practices and affiliations of Slavic Muslims. Research suggests that most of these immigrants and refugees have subsumed a key feature of their unique Balkan heritage in order to integrate into mainstream society, the Anglo-European population in this predominantly Protestant-Christian nation in the South Pacific. My study aims to elucidate this historic phenomenon through an exploration of multiple biographies of several working class persons, within the context of the wider picture of Bosnian settlement here. This essay asks: to what degree does personal motivation appear to influence participation in the wider, shared spiritual tradition of Islam in a minority societal context? Predicated on a review of the available literature, my research suggests a complex socio-economic bricolage. Through a case study design my analysis demonstrates that most Bosnian immigrants and refugees over the twentieth century were more concerned with tangible material objectives than theological principles or goals. These results indicate that, overall, religion played less of a role in their private and public lives historically compared to Asian and African immigrants and refugees. On this basis, it is suggested that in future Muslim social and religious organisations based in Bosnia make greater efforts to liaise with their diaspora populations even at these further-most edges of the earth and provide better spiritual leadership. Further research is necessary to identify other aspects that could strengthen Bosnian Muslim culture outside Europe
Andrić and Bašagić in the Yugoslavian Key
Get PDFThe different views on identity politics in Ottoman Bosnia presented by Ivo Andrić and Safvet-beg Bašagić in their respective doctoral dissertations stem from differences in the historical and socio-economic experiences of each of their respective religious and confessional communities. Andrić, oriented towards the future, perceives Bosnia from the perspective of a newly introduced concept of Yugoslav national unity that does not value diversity. Bašagić, romantically looking into the past, sees Bosnia through rose-coloured glasses. Both Andrić and Bašagić share distinct notions of their historical periods and allow for non-scientific influences to shape their academic discourses
Bosnia, Neoliberal Capitalism, Conservative Consciousness, and Citizens' Naivety
Get PDFThe historical process has posed a challenging question about Bosnia's national identity today. It is quite obvious that since the end of the 19th century, the historical course of a nation has been reduced to a "religious group" in which it is possible to recognize regression and unconscious existence. This represents a trace of the Ottoman period of hegemony in Bosnia, when the identity of the people was determined by religious affiliation. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the end of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in Bosnia, left Bosniaks solely perceived and defined as Muslims. What looks like naivety and powerlessness during the 20th century, should in fact be seen as ignorance of, and non-reflexivity on, one's own existence. In the Yugoslav system, they were designated as Muslims - with the capital letter M. At the time, it was announced as the solution to the national question! The clash of unfinished ethnic-religious constructions of Bosniak identity and the process of globalization in the first decades of the 21st century, led to paradoxical and somewhat tragic self-experiences and attempts to develop national consciousness, based on a religious matrix that is the foundation of conservative consciousness. This moves the whole of human destinies in the wrong direction once again, and the importance of the national or civic identity and political philosophy of statism are undermined and blurred by non-reflexive voluntarism. It seems that citizens’ naivety and their lack of knowledge about themselves and their own state framework, have led to a disastrous anti-Bosnian mentality and the extinguishing of the Bosnian national civic identity