[Nettime-bold] Roman defense?

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

http://www.ohr.int/ohr-dept/presso/bh-media-rep/round-
ups/default.asp?content_id=6206

>>One of the subjects discussed was the "Roman Defense" plan 
and its further implementation. According to Dnevni List’s source, 
the plan contains a point of "integrating or assimilating two of the 
peoples in BiH, Bosniaks and Croats, whereas the third, Serb 
people would remain intact in the environment that the entity itself 
created." That would solve two problems. Croats would no longer 
be a national problem with their nationalistic demands for a third 
entity or perhaps even for a secession, which otherwise could        
cause a new crisis in the region, while, on the other hand, Muslims 
would become a Europeanized people without any special 
segregation or deviations from the "European standards" of modern 
states, except for the religious characteristic, but that would be 
alleviated by assimilating them with Croats.<<

I don't know what do I find more offensive in this statement:
1) that it was so blatantly put on the Office of the High 
Representative page giving it a stamp of officialdom...
2) that it so brazenly outlines the foreign interference in the inter-
ethnic relations in Bosnia...
3) that it codes the operation as 'Roman Defense' cynically 
comparing itself with the Roman Empire and their historic lack of 
respect for the wishes of the local population - celebrating the 
'divide et impera' principle...
4) that it choses to openly admit that crime pays - by letting "Serb 
people [..] remain intact in the environment that the entity itself 
created" - this clearly rewards and justifies use of force, violence, 
ethnic cleansing and war crimes in any future attempt to 'create an 
entity' anywhere else in the world, doesn't it?
5) that it proposes the elimination of Croatian "national problem" 
through eliminating the separate Croatian identity in Bosnia by 
'merging' it with Bosniaks - not even communists before 1948, 
while they were still under Stalin's influence dared to attempt such 
a radical social engineering - what is this with the OHR is behaving 
like The Borg: "You shall be assimilated. Resistance is futile."? 
Don' t they see that this is a proposition for heightening the 
tensions within the Bosnian federation, and possibly a renewal of 
violence between Croats and Bosnians? Is that what OHR really 
wants?
6) that it openly humiliates Bosnian Muslims by saying that they 
"would become a Europeanized people without any special 
segregation or deviations from the 'European standards' of modern 
states, except for the religious characteristic" through assimilation 
with Croats - did the September 11 events managed to totally 
erase the perception of Bosnian Muslims that the world had so far 
as highly secular, highly Europeanized people?
7) that it, in that context of Europeanization through assimilation, 
by letting "Serb people [..] remain intact in the environment that the 
entity itself created", relegates Serbs in Bosnia to the isolation 
chamber chosen for them by their past war criminal leaders, 
punishing those among them who would wish to become parts to 
European integrations.

Shame on OHR. I think Petritsch should apologize to Bosniaks, to 
Croats and to Serbs in Bosnia for this statement. When I read 
things like that I get deeply depressed - thinking that the worldly 
policy-makers, the wealthy, the powerful really understand only the 
language of violent force, and this is precisely the thinking that 
made the disastrous events of the September 11 possible.

ivo


---------------------------------------------------------
Ivo Skoric
19 Baxter Street
Rutland VT 05701
802.775.7257
ivo@balkansnet.org
balkansnet.org

_______________________________________________
Nettime-bold mailing list
Nettime-bold@nettime.org
http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold