by Emir SULJAGIC
Until Elections Turn Green: Some twenty of them were cleaning at the time the waste disposal dump "spontaneously" created in the early nineties on the shore of a small river flowing through the village. Once a village dump, the location on the shore of the otherwise clean river, has over the time turned into a municipal waste disposal dump. The villagers, several days after the elections, decided together to clean the dump, and we encountered them at the moment when they were flattening the terrain with heavy machinery and burying under gravel the trash they could not remove. Some of them laughed, some were suspiciously nodding their heads when we showed up. They had had enough of journalists and newspapers. Somewhat later, Nijaz Milinkic, the president of the local commune, also showed up, bringing food for the workers. Peaceful life in the village has been totally disturbed, although they tried not to give away that impression; hard working men and women who just like anyone else are struggling to survive, have become an object of someone else's attention and in some cases scorn.
"We've explained this many times already," said Milinkic. "Here people ate pork even before the war," Sabaz Semic interjected. He claimed to be merely a SDP sympathizer, as well as that the whole event had nothing to do with that party. By the way, the village has always been predominantly Muslim or, if you prefer, Bosniak. Serbs lived only in one of the hamlets, Mosorovac, but left it at the beginning of the war.
A harmless celebration of the SDP victory, on April 8, the very night of the elections was an introduction to the event that will bring disruption to the village. When the news spread, around 11pm, that "the pile of ballots for the SDP is larger than the SDA pile", the supporters and members of the victorious party formed a column of cars and drove several times through the village waving flags and honking. However, after some of their neighbors complained about noise late at night, the procession was stopped and the continuation agreed for the following morning.
"We agreed to get together the next day; everyone was supposed to bring whatever and how much they could and go to the picnic spot outside the village," said Nijaz. In the morning the celebrating convoy passed one more time through the village and headed for the picnic spot, known as Omer's Hill. The number of cars in the column increased with time, so that this event grew from a picnic into a popular celebration. When the column reached the picnic spot, there they found five-six persons who were roasting a piglet. More precisely, they were turning it on a spit over fire.
"If I knew you were coming, I would have roasted another one," said Mujo Milinkic, getting out of a car and extending his hand, naked from the waist up. Yes, he said, he roasted the piglet. "I had guests and that morning we went to the forest, far from the village and were roasting the piglet when the column showed up. I offered the roast to the people from the column; those who wanted ate, those who did not set on the side."
"We shall always do that. No one from the SDP ate that. A few of us, demobilized war veterans ate pork," said angry Avdija Mosorovic, otherwise the secretary of the local organization of war veterans in Turija.
Golden Shovels: During the war Avdo was wounded twice, both times as a soldier of the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina. "I do not hate anyone any more, not even the Serbs. If they were recognized by Alija Izetbegovic, why shouldn't I recognize them as well," said Avdo. In his words one could detect spite and at times even scorn for people who according to him had betrayed him. "No one can tell me what to eat. What has Alija given me? He did not give me a state, he did not give me a job... He hasn't given me anything and he took everything away from me!"
Milinkic also spoke with bitterness characteristic for those who have given too much to be satisfied with anything received in return (although that anything most often turns into nothing): "They promised us golden spoons, and now, after 25 years of work, I am supposed to be fired. Since the end of the war no one has given me anything. I have two children in school. I had to dig in order to survive. I have dug out enough canals to get from here to Munich!" He also spent the war in the army. He lost a brother and a cousin, both of whom also fought in the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The roasting of the piglet was not a political message but, according to the participants, had a much more mundane background. "I would gladly eat lamb, but a kilo of lamb goes for KM10, while pork goes for KM3 per kilo," said Mujo, absolutely calmly, in his defense. Neither he, nor anyone else here, felt guilty. As far as they were concerned, there was nothing extraordinary about the incident, just like others find nothing unusual in the fact that after the war the locals do not have jobs, are forced to sell their military booklets [a form of compensation for persons who fought in the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina; booklets are supposed to have monetary value and in theory can be used to purchase apartments and other property; in practice, this hasn't been possible and a secondary market for otherwise useless booklets has developed over time] for pennies to wartime profiteers, to loose jobs after twenty years of work... Their misfortune is that they roasted now already "notorious" piglet a day after the elections, and the misfortune of the SDP members was that they ended up near the roasted piglet. Both of them seemed like suitable victims of the SDA propaganda, which is now, after the elections trying to blame all of its mistakes on a piglet. Having nothing else to offer in criticism of the victorious party, the SDA actually swooped down on this "incident", in an attempt to yet again, this time before the general elections this autumn, mobilize the voters and protect national (religious?) interests that have been made so banal in this case by the very party that is trying to protect these interests from the piglet from Turija.
As if the piglet from Turija is the worst danger facing Bosniaks at the moment. There is no emigration, no poverty, no unemployment, no organized crime, no corruption, no nepotism... The only remaining issue for the party that has already left "the ten most difficult years" behind is public morality and the protection of the Bosniak menu from the invasion of pork. Even Alija Izetbegovic, either faking or truly outraged, on TV with a shaking voice, took that as the greatest sin of the SDP, failing to first confirm whether the event had really taken place. Instead, it is more useful to "ride" the piglet, that will supposedly remind Bosniaks of true and imaginary insults and humiliations they suffered during the Communist rule, and unmask the SDP as its natural and logical continuation.
Political Piglet: "This was given much more significance than it objectively has," Dani were told even by the local imam Fahrudin Mekic. Efendi Mekic has been the local imam in Turija for many years and, according to him, he felt hurt that something like that had happened to his dzemat [parishioners]. "All I wanted to do was to say, in my next hutba [sermon] that, from the religious point of view, alcohol and pork are strictly forbidden. But this is not a state with sharia law, and there is no punishment for such an act."
True, Efendi Mekic has grown used to seeing the members of his dzemat in a pub after service, drinking strong liquor. During the war, one of them put up near the mosque a board advertising rakija [strong locally produced brandy]. Every morning, on his way to the mosque Efendi would take the board down and threw it in the bushes. In the end he hid it in his cellar. Because of the response caused by the "incident". Efendi even had to submit a report to the Tuzla mufti Husein ef. Kavazovic, who wanted to know whether the imam, as had been claimed, had been personally insulted. Far from that. I told the mufti that no one insulted me, nor was that piglet roasted near the mosque. However, I do think that the SDP should have condemned that act, although I agree that the ultimate intent of the people who did that was not to insult anyone."
To eat anything is an individual act. Finally, that implies the freedom to determine our own menu. Therefore that is a deeply personal issue. Just like the choice of one's religion. However, does that mean that a believer should be insulted if someone ate pork nearby? Why did such an act cause so much unprecedented uproar?
Some will, with justification, say that this was an insult to human intellect. At this moment a throng of general practice experts, known to the public as intellectuals, with ironic smiles or serious frown in pictures displayed on the top of their newspaper columns, are chewing on all the possible implications of this act. Was that an insult of Bosniak believers? Was that a mistake that could cause a defeat of the SDP in the next elections? They put forward again and yet again old and worn out questions of the type: "When will the Bosniaks come to their senses?" while next to them trends that should make the hair on their necks stand up pass unnoticed. If Mujo and Avdo ate "controversial" meat, does that make them less worthy of our respect? Does the fact that they voted for the SDP mean that the SDP is a wrong party? The commissars on duty want to imply that "the people who eat pork vote for the SDP!". No, that is wrong. The people who want to eat, and to eat every day, vote for the SDP.
My brothers in Islam, I continue to talk with Allah's assistance about the topic I addressed last Friday. But, as is my custom, let me remind you again of the events in Chechnya, the land of jihad and victories... The last week was marked by brilliantly carried out guerrilla actions of Chechen fighters which inflicted huge losses in manpower and weaponry on the aggressor. During the last week, all together 129 Russian soldiers were killed. Only in one action, Chechens killed 80 Russian soldiers and destroyed 17 tanks. Russian propaganda machinery has launched the misinformation that the Chechen president, Arslan Mashadov, is prepared for a unilateral cease-fire and negotiations with Russians in order to preserve his own people. That is an ordinary lie. The truth is that the president of Chechnya demanded from the commanders of the Chechen army to intensify guerrilla attacks. Other misinformation refers to the capture of the commander of the Chechen Army, which, thanks to Allah, is not true. Russians are sending reinforcements to the south of Chechnya where, God willing, they will all be slain. Lord, help the mujaheed and humiliate the heathen!
While in Chechnya there is a jihad, the Bosniak people, until yesterday the symbol of resistance and struggle for Islam, is these days provoking Allah's ire and punishment. Namely, in the villages of Turija and Dobosnica, near Lukavac, both inhabited exclusively by Bosniaks-Muslims, the victory of the SDP was "celebrated" by roasting piglets. Tito's pioneers, members of the SDP and their sympathizers, demonstrated their loyalty to atheism by greedily devouring pork. These people had been raised in Muslim families, so that some of them tasted the "forbidden meat" for the first time. Thus, these Bosniaks confirmed their loyalty to the new authorities and the "Party" by merriment with pork.
The swine from the spit was a tangible indication that the changes have come and that this part of the Lukavac Municipality has also in this way stepped into Europe. Let us mention that in the push of the Serb forces from Smoluca towards the Ozren Mountain on August 26, 1992, in Dubosnica 108 Bosniaks were killed in only two days. About 30 civilians, elderly, women and children, were butchered with axes. Almost all the houses were set on fire and demolished. By the end of the war, 200 people perished in that region. But those who "perished" did not perish if they were aware of their sacrifice. On the contrary, those who do not know who and what they are have fallen and perished! Those who were slain on Allah's way are not dead, but those who are anything but human are dead, even during their life.
I recall hundreds of heroes of this country, and among them shehid Kemal from Sudan. He fell as a shehid defending Bosnia-Hercegovina in early 1993. Kemal was a student of the fifth year of medicine. I recall Palestinian Salema. Twenty one days after their death, their bodies were still nimble as if they had just passed away, and their blood flowed as if their wounds had just been inflicted. Heavenly smells were coming from their wounds. My body and your body, my brother, bodies of us who recklessly push forward and are blinded by the "(lack of) culture" of others, stink even while we are still alive. They stink of stench that belongs in Hell and in eternal flame.
Brother, our youth, and even those who are somewhat older, and with them those who are on important functions in the state (including ministers and advisors), were last Saturday at a concert of Goran Bregovic, one of traitors from Sarajevo and Serbo-Belgrade singers, the one who never with a single word distanced himself from the Serb crime. The hall of the BKC [Bosnian Cultural Center?] was too small to receive all those who were interested, and all the attendees were on their feet, since another "star" from Belgrade had come. They said that Bregovic sang some Chetnik songs, such as "Come to the old man, so that the old man can stick...". Did anyone remember at that moment that tens of thousands of Bosniak women had been raped by the people to whom he belongs and by the people that sang similar or identical songs.
The very same day, in several locales in two municipalities: Foca (Paunci, Cvilin, and Gradiska) and Srebrenica, 31 bodies of bestially murdered Bosniak civilians were exhumed. 31 skeletons of murdered innocents were dug up on the day of the concert. Those innocents had their loved ones and were not random passers by in this life. All of them had Muslim names and, hopefully, the same kibla. Those innocents were not worthy of a mention at the beginning of the Saturday main news program, since that is not important news for the editor of the TV Bosnia-Hercegovina news program, as well as for many of those who would like to separate us from our reality and bloody history. Of course, it was more important to report about Bregovic's concert, to which the news dedicated the whole five minutes.
During these days, celebrations and reports from the field received much more emphasis than any Bosniak Bayram. During those days Cardinal Puljic sent usual phrases, while both on the tower in Pocitelj and hill Hum above Mostar we can still see crosses, symbols of Christianity, not of Croats. Why does not Puljic at least distance himself from the erection of crosses in the places where they insult a whole nation. Let us not even mention that the Catholic Church should condemn crimes committed by those who are its believers.
Three days ago, the Bosnian public had to bear the full lack of professionalism of those who reported that during Welesley Clark's visit to Srebrenica the keys for two reconstructed houses had been handed over to the councilors in the local council and that Dodik had presented Mr. Malkic with a pencil so that Malkic could write new pages of history. The international community, not willing to assist the establishment of the structures of the civilian authorities in accordance with the election results for the Srebrenica Municipality, had the obligation to fully reconstruct Srebrenica and Zepa using its own funds, since those two towns were under their protection as safe zones. Instead, it is boasting, and naïve Bosniaks are grateful because the foreigners repaired two houses. We shall be puppets in someone else's hands and will perpetually be victims of our own naivete and undiminished hatred of the criminals until we learn to fight for our own rights. These criminals have for more than a century in three aggressions butchered, burnt, and looted, previously carefully looking at our necks (so that they can butcher us with big knives), women (so that they can rape them), and property (so that they can loot it). Allah dz. S. in Sura Hadid says:
"Isn't it time that the hearts of believers soften up when Allah and the truth are mentioned, so that they are not like those to whom the Book has been given a long time ago, and their hearts, because such a long time has passed by, have turned merciless and many of them are heathen." (Suretu-l-Hadid: 16)
Will we hurry with tevba and be sincere slaves of Allah, or will we continue to waver and follow the path of others. Do we not desire heaven and heavenly rewards? Do we prefer Hell and the filth that will be the food of the sinners? Do we prefer the company of the Prophet a.s. and other guardians of the faith and shehids [martyrs slain fighting for Islam] or do we prefer the company of sinners and hypocrites? Allah dz.s. in Sura En-Nisa' says: "Those who obey Allah and the Prophet will be in the company of the guardians of faith, the just, shehids and good people to whom Allah granted His mercy. And such good friends they will be!" (Suretun-Nisa': 69)
Let us imagine Heaven with rivers of milk, sweet drink, and pure honey, with [beautiful women] with big black eyes. Anything that your desire seeks will be had in Heaven, wider than the Earth and sky! Then imagine the fire, and beg Allah dz.s. to pull us away from it. In that fire are filth, boiling water, unbearable heat, limitless depth, perpetual suffering etc.! "Whenever they try to leave Hell because of horrible suffering, they will be sent back to experience suffering in horrible flame!" (Suretu-l-Hadz: 22)
Brother, let us repent and persevere on the way of the truth! Why do not we recall that one day, perhaps as early as tomorrow, we will be helpless in the coffin, will be lowered in our grave in which we shall continue our life after death? How shall we respond when asked why we hadn't repented? Why are we not preparing for the meeting with our Lord when we shall be asked both small and big things?
When every day we pray to Allah dz.s.: "Show us the right way!", why do we not stick to that path? Or, is this prayer only one in the series of prayers whose meaning we do not understand?
"In the name of your Lord, we shall hold them responsible," (92) "for their actions!" (93) (Suretu-l-Hidzr: 92-93)
Lord help the fighters of Chechnya and give them a victory soon, forgive us our sins and be merciful in the judgment day!
Sarajevo: 23 Muharrem 1421. H.
April 28, 2000