Serbian Progressive Party & Former Ambassadors

Yesterday was a day full of meetings! First, we met with a member of the Serbian Progressive Party at the Parliament building who talked a bit about corruption, EU accession, and Serbian political parties. He told us that they have a rather large issue with corruption in Serbia, but they are actively tackling the issue and confident that they will be able to deter officials from accepting/requesting bribes. He is also confident that Serbia will enter the EU at some point, and accession talks are to begin in January 2014. One issue that I found is that citizens are still divided about joining the EU. Previous governments repeatedly promised that EU accession would be easy and they would enter as a way to get re-elected, thus people are skeptical about the process and whether it will be worth it or not. The parliamentarian stated that they hope to be a full EU Member State within 4 to 5 years, which I personally feel is a bit of a reach, but I guess you never know. If the government is truly motivated to get their laws in check with EU standards and to combat the issues that they have, then it may be possible.

Our second meeting was with the Former Serbian Ambassador to France, and we met at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (which I know about from writing my senior capstone). He was a very passionate man and seemed like a genuinely nice person; however, he was quite clearly biased in many of his opinions. He began by giving us a historical overview of the history of Kosovo but it appeared as though he was pretty against the Albanian view. He stated how Albanians were complaining of Serbian aggression in the region, yet quickly countered this with accounts of Albanian aggression against Serbs. He also stated that Serbs were the only peoples in the region who wanted to maintain a Yugoslavia – however he failed to mention that due to Serb aggression, this continued “Yugoslavia” would have more realistically been a Greater Serbia with little recognition of minorities. An interesting question that he raised was related to the rise of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which was an Albanian army that really failed to include any other minorities or ethnic groups. He asked: why can’t Serbs in Bosnia or Croatia secede if Albanians in Kosovo can? I definitely thought that this was an interesting point to raise and something I’d like to look more into.

Our final meeting of the day was with the Former Serbian Ambassador to the US. He told us about the baggage that had to be dealt with in order to improve Serbia-US relations, including the Kosovo issue, frozen funds, and trading relations. He also stated that the US has a kind of ownership or special relationship regarding Kosovo due to the NATO bombings, which I hadn’t really thought of but found interesting to consider. He believes that it is better to make war than impose sanctions, and I must say I agree. Sanctions do very little to actually hinder the government that they are meant to punish – innocent civilians suffer, it sucks the blood out of a nation, legitimizes politicians, and criminalizes the population when a black market arises. Sanctions serve very little other purpose than to pacify the US and the more broad international community into feeling as though they have taken action against injustice.

Overall, yesterday was a VERY full day, but it consisted of really interesting people and conversations that have really made me want to further study up on Kosovo and the problems that it faces – both politically, socially, and economically.

 

Srebrenica Memorial & Cemetery

Today we traveled to the Srebrenica memorial and cemetery to learn more about the genocidal massacre that occurred there in July 1995. The memorial site is in an old battery warehouse where the Dutch UN soldiers were stationed. It is also where approximately 5,000 Bosniaks sought refuge from the advancing Bosnian Serb army led by Ratko Mladic. Essentially, within only a few days in 1995 over 8,000 people were killed. So far, just over 5,600 have been buried at the memorial cemetery across the street – 409 more will be buried there on July 11. July 11, by the way, marks the date that Srebrenica fell to the Bosnian Serb army.

Another thing I found interesting to consider is the failure of the UN. It’s been brought up a couple of times over the past few days but really sunk in today at the memorial. Srebrenica was the first UN declared “safe area” yet they failed to stop the worst genocide in Europe since World War II. The UN soldiers refused to engage in warfare against the Bosnian Serb army and forced the Bosniaks seeking refuge there to leave. It’s inconceivable to me why they would do that – I know that they’re peacekeepers, not soldiers, and they aren’t supposed to engage in warfare unless fired at first (which I don’t believe happened), but there really needs to be exceptions to that law.

The visit was very emotional for many of us; it is surreal being in a place where so many people urged the UN soldiers for help and were turned away; where thousands of Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Bosnian Serbs who had basically been their neighbors. I also really enjoyed the ride there and back – it gives a great overview of Bosnia and you can see the mountainous landscape as well as ruins of houses and buildings that (I’m assuming) were damaged during the war. It was unbelievable to see so many deserted/abandoned homes, and even more shocking to see people living in homes that looked as though they should be abandoned. There were several instances where I was looking at a house wondering what happened to the people who used to live there and then looking into the windowless opening and seeing signs of someone living there now: cloths hanging on a line, things resembling mattress-like areas, etc.

The entire day – rides included – really put things into perspective. So many people, especially Americans, don’t realize how good they have it. Sure, the US has its issues and there’s poverty, economic uncertainty, and unemployment; but it’s just so different here. It literally looks as though some of these people have close to nothing. It makes you wonder how they survive: how do they get food, go to the bathroom, do laundry? Americans have very little idea what it is like to live through and survive an extremely violent war and to try and rebuild your life. It fascinates me to think about the daily lives of Bosnians and to try and imagine living through what many of them have.