The Democratic Action Party is financing "Ljiljan", the first Muslim tabloid in the world: of course I oppose such journalism!
Interviewed by Gordan Malic
For the Sarajevo authorities, "Dani" is a problematic magazine with a tendency toward provocation, a serious political approach, with a passion for subversion and the taboo themes of the ruling ideology. The magazine is supported by well-known authors such as Ivan Lovrenovic, Miljenka Jergovic, Mile Stojic and Senad Pecanin but also by brilliant transoceanic correspondents such as Semezdin Mehmedinovic and Sasa Hemonn, writers who are publishing these days in Ferlinghetti's "City Lights" or in "The New Yorker". Were it printed in America, "Dani" would be a solid "underground" magazine which publishes impressive urban short stories together with traditional essays on medieval subjects or critiques of graffiti. However, fate has assigned this weekly a different task in a different country. The editor in chief, Senad Pecanin, is the author of hard-hitting, provocative interviews in which he "worked over", with the same direct and candid approach, Alija Izetbegovic, cardinal Vinko Puljic and Haris Silajdzic. "Dani" has a circulation of twenty-odd thousand copies, which is solid for Bosnian conditions.
PECANIN: The situation in BH completely corresponds to the description of George Soros: in BH we have "a frozen state" without a visible perspective. The upcoming elections, assuming that the Social-Democratic Party beats the stuffing out to the Democratic Action Party, cannot bring essential change. The SDP, surrounded by the Republic of Srpska and areas under the domination of the Croatian Democratic Alliance, would become just another new Bosniak party. The government in The Republic of Srpska is still an adapted version of Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party, and the Croatian Democratic Alliance is a party of continuity. As a result, Ivan Lovrenovic, Mile Stojic, Nerzuk Curak and I openly warned the public that the only path toward change is radical use of all the powers of the representative of the international community. The solutions from Dayton have become a limiting factor in the development of a stable, prosperous state community. The balance of existing powers makes the functioning of state institutions impossible.
GLOBUS: Your conclusion is that the maximal use of the powers of the representative of the international community is better than the half-way solutions to date?
PECANIN: The manner in which the existing local authorities are functioning is only in their own interest. Their style of ruling among the people is a reproduction of the feeling of loss and lack of hope. That is why we suggested a series of very concrete measures which we called "Ten theses on BH". It is necessary to suspect all parliaments in BH, both federal and at the entity, cantonal and municipal levels. Then the high international representative would assume all the powers of the parliaments. The BH presidency should be suspended, all scheduled elections in BH should be put off in this year and rescheduled in the following in accordance with an election law based on the decisions of the BH constitutional court regarding the constitutional character of peoples in the territory of the entire country. It is necessary to adjust the structure of the armed forces of BH to correspond with that of NATO and to adjust BH toward European integrations. And finally, the high international representative should limit his powers to the general and municipal elections to be held in 2001. These measures would ensure the democratic implementation of elections in 2001.
GLOBUS: To what degree is your project or any other project of change realizable while Alija Izetbegovic is alive?
PECANIN: Unfortunately, the biological survival of nationalist leaders in the Balkans in one of the most relevant of political facts. The best example of this is the experience of Croatia. I think that in Sarajevo it is hard for us to expect changes as long as Izetbegovic is doing an excellent job manipulating the imaginative threat to the Bosniaks in the event that the Democratic Action Party "is not the only guarantor of their interests". Izetbegovic is using the entire state, police, media, underground and criminal apparatus which is at his beck and call to convince the people that his party is irreplaceable. Izetbegovic is one of the biggest obstacles to changes in BH.
PECANIN: From current events it is easier to conclude that the bigger problem is Croatian nationalists, the Croatian Democratic Alliance and the generals of the Croatian Defense Army. However, by far the bigger problem is the Bosniak concept of government which is being implemented by the Democratic Action Party, and which can be defined shortly as a "Islamic Communism". In order to protect acquired positions, material goods and political power, the Democratic Action Party is consciously manipulating the Islamic faith, while the Islamic community is very adept at guiding the politics of the Democratic Action Party. This interaction is dangerous and how acute it is best shown by Izetbegovic's colleagues who are from fundamentalist, almost Taliban-like positions attacking secularism, the fundamental political achievement of the twentieth century. Dzemaludin Latic, Izetbegovic's colleague, issued an almost programmatic attack on "the secular principle of organization of the state and society". At the beginning of the new millennium, high Bosniak officials are claiming that the state is "threatened by secular organization"!? The same idea, with a slightly greater spiritual nuance, was expressed by reis Mustafa effendi Ceric in "Oslobodjenje" who swooped down on secularism as a threat.
GLOBUS: Is the Bosnian state living in the far past...
PECANIN: You can count the politicians and public officials who are able to rise in defense of secularism as a principle of organization of state and society on the fingers of one hand [i.e., there are so few of them]. When I did an interview with Zdravko Grebo, as an act of his personal bravery on the cover I cited a quote in which he said that secularism in Bosnia must be defended. Please note: in a more or less European country a university professor stood up in defense of secularism!? Anywhere else in the world this news would be a first-class media joke but here it is a deadly serious political issue. People in Bosnia are afraid of the aggressive propaganda of the religious-political "establishment" and they don't dare to protest. This tragedy was caused by Alija Izetbegovic, while those like Latic are only the executors of the dirty work. Dzemaludin Latic is Izetbegovic's advisor and a member of the highest body of the Democratic Action party. He has tremendous capital at his disposal which enables him to professionally squander millions of marks on the infantile project of a Bosnian television station without the possibility of any sort of control: by the party, state, international... What we have is money which is circulating without any knowledge on the part of state, and even of foreign, organs. This money can be deposited in a Swiss bank or used to found the first Muslim tabloid in the world which is called "Ljiljan" and then in it you can instruct Bosniaks how to hate secularism and modern political culture. You can start a television station... Small wonder then that "Dani" is the biggest enemy with a global perspective of that religious-political concept. Sometimes I have the impression that the ideologists of the Democratic Action Party are bothered considerably more by our aesthetics than they our by our ethics. That is why they have such stupid censorship reactions to a cover page which shows green Coca-Cola.
GLOBUS: How do you explain the fact that local mafiosos are especially sensitive to the content of "Dani"?
PECANIN: It is impossible to become a criminal without the support of ruling structures. This is a theory which is equally valid in Banja Luka, Grude, Sarajevo or Tuzla. The borders of criminality for those who do not enjoy support from political, police and judicial institutions, but also from the highest bodies and officials of the state government, are at the level of the flea market in Sarajevo or the used car market in Stolac with good chances of your being caught and punished for your smuggled carton of cigarettes. The most profitable criminal activities in privatization will never be punished. Political protection is enjoyed by wholesale smugglers of cigarettes, as well as by criminals involved in oil or heroin smuggling. Big rigs and tankers owned by the mafia are under protection from the "border" itself where they are met by customs guards and the corrupt border police. It is impossible to have at one's disposal the funds of the most profitable publicly owned companies such as the post office, the electric power company, the tobacco factory or the Sarajevo brewery if you do not belong to the criminally-disposed leadership of the leading parties. Hard-core mafiosos live in complete symbiosis with high, literally the highest, leadership of the ruling political parties.
PECANIN: They are all that rolled into one. Many a time I have spoken in complete confidence with high police officials who were in despair over their inability to take action. Without a preceding political decision made by the highest bodies of the party, where secularism is cleared, the police cannot punish even the thief in a supermarket in the city center. The mafia leadership is completely untouchable, like the Communist Politbureau. All the mafia leaders are well-known, their names have been published numerous times in various registers. What we have is ten-odd people who have more than a hundred crimes behind them, neatly reported, recorded in files and in the justice system. However, the justice system is definitely the best defense for criminals in Sarajevo...
GLOBUS: When deputy police minister Jozo Leutar was killed by a planted bomb, Jacques Klein suggested that a "multiethnic mafia" was to blame for the murder. Is it possible for the mafia in BH to be "multiethnic"?
PECANIN: One of the best examples of the reintegration of BH, not only of BH but perhaps of ex-Yugoslavia, is the cooperation among the mafiosos. The former player of the Mostar team "Velez", Milos Okuka, tried to get back his apartment in Sarajevo through various legal ways. His apartment was occupied by a refugee family from Srebrenica. No matter what attorney he hired, he was unsuccessful in getting his apartment back. Then, through some Belgrade connections, he got in touch with one of the key Sarajevo criminals, his apartment was vacated in a flash and returned to him heaven knows by what returned favor in Serbia. The same things are probably happening between Zagreb and Belgrade, between Sarajevo and Mostar.
GLOBUS: Your editorial board passed through torture at the hands of local gangsters. One you were lined up and questioned with weapons pointed at you... Was any of them sentenced as a result?
PECANIN: Ismet Bajramovic Celo paid a total of 60 marks fine because he broke into our editorial offices, led us out, lined us up and questioned us while his men pressed their guns against our ribcages. I betrayed the confidence which Celo Bajramovic expected from me when he revealed his "secrets", for example, his acquaintance and connection with Bakir Izetbegovic, the son of the state president, about which I wrote in "Dani". Of course, Bakir did not appear to offer a rebuttal; instead, Celo broke into our offices. If Ivica Osim, the idol of the Sarajevo public, was not sitting in my office who knows how the whole thing would have ended. When he saw Svabo, which is what they call Osim, Celo suddenly changed the angry expression on his face to a beaming smile but he swore at me. Osim somehow managed to defuse the situation but the result was that all present members of the editorial board had step outside so they could be questioned and insulted by Celo's group. In order to let me know what in fact this was all about, Celo kept repeating: "I will not let Bakir screw me because of you..."