Regeneration or Degeneration

The Prime Minister had an option of "trading in" Bundalo for Pecanac, since some high officials of the international factor, and especially the special UN envoy in Bosnia-Hercegovina (BH), Jacques Klein, were advocating that Pecanac should stay at the position of the deputy minister. Of course, this demonstrated that their calls for "full responsibility", as so many times in the past, were not totally sincere

by Slobodan VASKOVIC

Reporter, Banja Luka, Srpska, B-H, May 23, 2001

Whether the things in Bosnia-Hercegovina will again in the near future take the path of violence and persecution of everything that "does not belong" to this or that cross or the crescent, whose goal is not the protection of national but above all criminal interests, or whether they will return to the path of economic reform, whose goal is to pull Bosnia-Hercegovina out of the jaws of corruption and crime, does not at this point primarily depend on the international factor present in the BH. It depends even less on the political parties, members of the Alliance for Changes, which used the first chance to strongly demonstrate that the change they are shooting for is the abolishment of the Republic of Srpska, and even less depends on the national parties, which would gladly abolish everything apart from themselves.

The further developments in BH, whether anyone is willing to admit that or not, above all depend on whether the Prime Minsier of Srpska, Mladen Ivanic, will manage to resist all the pressures and troubles and continue where he was stopped on May 7 by a handful of extremists. For starters, it is encouraging that Ivanic hasn't succumbed to the situation and responded in kind to the slaps coming from those who finally got a chance to try to change something thanks to the votes of representatives of Ivanic's party in the Bosnian parliament, and also that he hasn't broken the coalition that commands comfortable majority in Srpska. As both moves would place Ivanic in the position of a blackmailed man, and BH and especially Srpska, in the state of total instability and anarchy. Instead, for now, Ivanic took the only logical move and fired all those whose task it was to secure peaceful outcome of the religious functions in Trebinje and Banja Luka, and who failed in that. Thus, minister of internal affairs of Srpska Perica Bundalo, his deputy Brane Pecanac, head of state security center in Banja Luka Vladimir Tutus, and director of intelligence-security service Dobro Planojevic, were all dismissed. By taking this action, Ivanic became the first Prime Minister of Srpska to demonstrate that he knows the meaning of responsibility. In that manner he again began to strengthen his position and bring Srpska back into calmer seas. Many believe that this Prime Minister's move was forced by the international factor and that its goal is to further weaken Ivanic's position, especially if one has in mind that Bundalo and Tutus are high officials of his Democratic Progress Party. However, that simply is not the case.

Avoiding Trades: Despite seemingly dire political situation after grave incidents in Banja Luka and Trebinje, Ivanic had enough maneuver space for a trade in this issue. He could condition Bundalo's resignation with his support for the Alliance for Changes or could save him by sticking to the notorious fact that the first policeman of Srpska was not in the entity during unfortunate incidents in Banja Luka and Trebinje, but in the US. The Prime Minister also had a possibility to "trade in" Bundalo for Pecanac, since some high officials of the international factor, above all special UN envoy for BH Jacques Klein, strongly advocated that Pecanac should not be replaced and thus yet again proved that their calls for "total responsibility" were not sincere. However, Ivanic was aware that in that case the president of Srpska, Mirko Sarovic, would enter the equation and demand that Planojevic keep his office. All of that would lead to a series of rotten compromises and dismissal of small fry, while people who actually are not capable of leading institutions they were supposed to would remain in office. Such solution would be meaningless and would provoke new conflicts and tensions and further weaken Srpska.

Of course, this Ivanic's move does not mean that his job is done and that he can peacefully return to the "benefits" of his job. On the contrary, this is only the first small step towards the full stabilization of the situation and solution of the crisis.

The next Ivanic's step must be to appoint ministers of Police and director of the intelligence service whose chief and only quality will not be their party membership or friendship with one of leading politicians, but professionalism and expertise in the field. Only then can Ivanic hope that organizers of the incidents in Trebinje and Banja Luka will be found and that he will leave the whole story stronger than when he entered it against his will.

Because, only identification and punishment of the instigators and participants in the serious incidents in Banja Luka proves that the reconstruction of Ferhat Pasa's mosque and other mosques, as well as Catholic Churches does not represent any post-war defeat for an overwhelming majority of Serbs, but is an elementary human right of Bosniaks and Croats who live in Srpska to enjoy their religious freedom. The moment that happens, the reconstruction of religious buildings of Bosniaks and Croats who live in Srpska will stop being a measure of the maturity of the Serb entity and signify the end of the deformed and untrue argumentation that Srpska is a product of genocide in which fascism is something that is loved.

Translated on July 31, 2001