Bosnian Serb academics, associations assail decision on Serb national anthem
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 31, 2007 Tuesday

Text of report by Bosnian Serb newspaper Glas Srpske on 27 July

[Report by M. Dzepina: "New Notes of Uncertainty"]

Has the law again given way to politics? This was the first question that the Serb Republic public asked after the decision two days ago of the Council for the Protection of Vital National Interests of the Serb Republic's Constitutional Court. Based on this decision, the Serb Republic was left without its national anthem "Lord, Give Us Justice."

However, a much more serious question is whether the major Bosniak political leaders from Sarajevo, who are overjoyed at the court's decision, will continue to reject the Serb Republic by destroying its pillars one by one, even at the cost of the survival of the Dayton [peace agreement] B-H.

Rajko Vasic, a member of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats' [SNSD] central committee, told Glas Srpske that the situation with the national anthem and the coat-of-arms was only one piece in the mosaic of creating an Islamic republic in the long term.

"We need to keep in mind the undeniable fact that the Serbs and Croats did not want to live in B-H, which was demonstrated during the war. B-H can only be a decentralized, not a unified state. The Serb people must not vanish from it as they disappeared from Croatia and Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija].

Vasic emphasized that even if the Serb Republic could not preserve its coat-of-arms or the national anthem, nothing would change the fact that the Serb Republic was a permanent entity in B-H.

"Or outside B-H, independent, if the pressure continues to be 100 per cent Bosniak B-H and 100 per cent Haris Silajdzic's [B-H Presidency member] B-H," Vasic said.

He said that the situation was not alarming, but that the last few steps regarding the state symbols and the national anthem were only the latest among many that were causing a lack of trust in B-H. He emphasized that after this, the Serb Republic and the Serbs believed even less in B-H's survival. He added that the Sarajevo unity circles were the ones who should keep this fact and B-H's future in mind more than the Serbs.

History Professor Zoran Pejasinovic from Banja Luka stressed that the Serb Republic symbols were not the B-H symbols, and that they did not need to be the symbols of all three ethnic groups in the entities.

"Symbols like that would, in fact, be the B-H symbols. This brings us to the famous question of the constitutionality of all the three ethnic groups, which borders on farce," he said. He added that: "You cannot create a national anthem that would satisfy the emotions of all three ethnic groups. That is impossible. The coat-of-arms and the anthem are emotional categories, but also political, aesthetic, and heraldic. Unfortunately, that cannot be reconciled here. Moreover, it often happens that the legal bodies are not immune to politics, and if we take all this into consideration, we get confusion, which we try to overcome by choosing the lesser of the two evils.

In his view, there is a trend in B-H to try to eradicate the Serb Republic and transfer its powers to the B-H level. In his view, certain people have this goal as their only agenda.

Pejasinovic gave an example to illustrate the extent of the efforts to create B-H and a Bosnian nation earlier in history.

"A good illustration is certainly an example by Benjamin Kalaj, finance minister and administrator for B-H during the Austro-Hungarian presence. He was known for implementing a policy of an integrated B-H and the Bosnian nation. He even banned his own book on the history of the Serbs, which he had written several years before his arrival in B-H, when he was a consul in Serbia," Pejasinovic recalled.

Pejasinovic argues that this tendency continues even today, which can be seen through the introduction of the Bosnian language, named after a state that is not called only Bosnia. He concluded that, if one wanted to follow that logic, then the language should be called Bosnian-Herzegovian.

Sociology Professor Ivan Sijakovic from Banja Luka said that there had been a tendency in Sarajevo for a long time to "strip away" the Serb Republic and take away all its important elements, such as transferring its powers and taking away its symbols.

"What is happening here is the following: if you do not want to agree to having the Serb Republic institutionally immersed in B-H, then we shall do in a roundabout and gradual manner, by removing all its autonomous elements," Sijakovic said.

The representatives of such a policy, in his view, did not demonstrate understanding and fairness in building a joint state, because they did not allow an ethnic group to have its symbols and the space to express itself.

"For more than a hundred years, a dual life has been led here: one orientated towards the authorities, and another, a totally different life, without tolerance, in the background," Sijakovic concluded.

Sijakovic noted that this could not be prevented, because if people could not fly a flag in a public place, they would display it on their own house.

[Box] Religion, Not Nation

Vasic said that the Bosniaks had a problem in building a nation, but that they were historically late in that sense. He noted that Islam as a religion did not insist on nations, but on Islam itself. Therefore, he thinks, the Bosniaks are trying to appropriate B-H for themselves and become its sole rulers. He said that this had been their aim in the war, and still was, judging by all that had been happening.

[Box] Continuation of Pressure

The Serb Republic war veterans' organization was not surprised by the Constitutional Court's decision regarding the national anthem, but was concerned because the Serb judges had agreed to it. The veterans are warning that such a decision was continuation of the pressure on the Serb Republic, which began in 1992, with the aim of abolishing this entity and everything else that carried the Serb name. They added that they would continue to use the national anthem and the coat-of-arms at their ceremonies.

The Serb Republic organization of the families of imprisoned and fallen soldiers and missing civilians is of the opinion that the court's decision was against the interests of the community. It added that it was obvious that this and similar decisions were the introduction to the final act, that is, changing the Serb Republic's name.

The Serb Republic association of prison camp inmates is bitter about the decision of the Council for the Protection of Vital National Interests, which had left the Serb Republic without the "Lord, Give Us Justice" anthem, the association's chairman, Branislav Dukic, told SRNA [Bosnian Serb news agency].

"We, the Serb prison camp inmates, were not surprised by the Serb Republic Constitutional Court's decision, but we were surprised by our representatives in that body," Dukic said. He added that this was not the first time that the court's Serb representatives had given in to the pressure from Sarajevo.

Source: Glas Srpske, Banja Luka, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 27 Jul 07

Copyright 2007 British Broadcasting Corporation
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