Today I moved in and out of independence day (Dan
nezavisnosti). A walk up through Grbavica, my new home in Sarajevo, to the
Vraca Park memorial to those who died in the Second World War took me out of
the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and briefly into Bosnia’s other
entity, Republika Srpska. In the absence of a state-level law on the ‘independence
day’ holiday, this meant moving from one part of the country where the holiday
is recognised, to another where it is not.
1 March 1992 was the second day of the referendum in which a
majority of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s voters opted for separation
from a Yugoslav federation that had already seen three of six republics opt for
independence. The referendum was not supported in municipalities under the control
of Serb political parties such as Radovan Karadžić’s Serbian Democratic Party. Recognition
of the new state came the following month, but was swiftly followed by the
escalation of hostilities in a war lasted until late 1995.
It is no surprise that the state contested at its birth
(some may say rebirth pointing to the medieval Bosnian kingdom, or the
republic’s place in Yugoslavia), and in many ways continuously contested since,
should struggle to find consensus on a meaningful national day. The same
problem occurs in November, with Statehood Day (Dan državnosti, 25 November) and Day of
the Republic (Dan Republike, 29 November), which respectively mark the
ZAVNOBiH and AVNOJ* meetings of 1943. These can be taken as formal beginnings
for post-war socialist Bosnia and Herzegovina and Yugoslavia.
Željko
Komsić, the current head of the three member state Presidency who stands
as the Croat member of the ethnically-defined troika, marked the occasion with
a formal reception for local dignitaries and international representatives. His
colleague Bakir Izetbegović, the Bosniak representative, unable to attend on
health grounds, marked the occasion with a positive message to the country’s
citizens.
The Serb member of the rotating presidency, Nebojša Radmanović, stated
that the day is not, and will not be, a state-recognised holiday. The day
is one which is cited as featuring the first victim of the Bosnian war, a
wedding guest shot while carrying a Serbian flag in the old town of Sarajevo, Baščaršija.
Likewise, while Nermin Nikšić, prime minister of the Federation
of Bosnia and Herzegovina wished all citizens of Bosnia a happy
independence day, Milorad Dodik, president of the Republika Srpska is quoted in
the Serbian daily, Blic, characterising the day as one of trauma, not only for
Bosnia’s Serbs who were separated from Serbs in other states, but also for
Croats and Bosniaks, because of the violence of the ensuing secession. Such a
position depends on an assumption that in the absence of a referendum, Bosnia
would have avoided war. Given the existing tensions and violence in the country
and elsewhere in Yugoslavia before the referendum, this is not a given.
So for now, the day of independence is one endorsed by
authorities on one side of an internal border, and two-thirds of a three member
presidency.
*ZAVNOBiH – State Anti-Fascist Council for the People’s
Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina; AVNOJ – Anti-Fascist Council for the
People’s Liberation of Yugoslavia
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