No matter how insignificant the matter of Bosnia and Herzegovina may seem in the larger scale of things, it is in fact of paradigmatic and global relevance, said a letter sent to US President Joe Biden, in which a group of Bosnian intellectuals asks for help and support for solving the burning issues that obstruct the country’s progress.

“Grateful for your past interest in our country and the region, and conscious that in you and your great country the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina have our greatest friend, we have decided to address you directly with this request for help and support in our efforts as citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina to extricate our country from political, cultural, and economic gridlock,” said the letter that was sent to the White House early March this year.

The authors emphasized five main obstacles on the country’s path towards a democratic future as well as five steps that they believe will help return the country on that path.

Among other things they warned about the abuse of the Dayton Peace Agreement – the treaty which ended the Bosnian 1992-95 war and that contains the Constitution of BiH, carried out by “political establishments of Serbia and Croatia” who, according to the letter authors, “have consistently found ways over years to abuse the agreement and deploy unacceptable and destructive interpretations of it to justify interference in our internal affairs.”

“As a result, the governments of both those countries continue consistently and constantly to undermine the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina and do what they can to keep our country weak and dysfunctional, promoting and exacerbating internal divisions and encouraging the forces that want its dissolution,” they warned.

The note further reads that the future of BiH is lying in the unity that fosters religious and other differences but that “neighbouring governments and their clients within our country” consistently pursue a policy of promoting and exacerbating these divisions, thus hindering the country’s stable progress on the path of integration into the Europe and NATO.

It also stressed that de facto consociational system developed after the Dayton agreement has created three mutually reinforcing single-party ethnic constituencies, based upon the capture of institutions at all levels, which resulted “in a culture of cronyism and traded favours.”

“There remains an extensive middle ground of civic patriotism, but it is disorganised, disheartened, and ineffectual. The vast majority of the people would support civic option, if they could see how it could overcome the vested interests of the ethnic camps and the divisions they have entrenched,” the note said.

As citizens of this country, the letter authors said, they consider themselves responsible for this situation, and asked for the US President’s “understanding and assistance” in implementing the steps they find important to overcome these obstacles.

N1

N1

N1

N1

N1

N1

The first among those goals would be the reinforcement of the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which means that “consolidation and stabilisation of conditions in south-eastern Europe depend on Serbia and Croatia recognising the sovereignty of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian state both de jure and de facto.”

The next step would include the international engagement, which means the help of the United States of America and the European Union, who can alone prevent non-European interference in Bosnian and Herzegovinian affairs aimed at fomenting and widening the climate of divisiveness and fear through propaganda and prejudice.

“Most people here recognise the importance of joining the NATO alliance and want to. We hope that we are right to count on the support of the United States and the European Union, as joining NATO is the best way of putting to rest our concerns over Serbia and Croatia’s ongoing rearmament and gun-waving,” they said.

The three next steps include: restoring social trust and creating an enabling environment, combatting the ideologies of division and hatred, and establishing the meaningful rule of law.

“We are fully aware that the positions set out in this letter are general, but we also believe that setting them out is an essential first step towards building a more concrete plan with practical solutions, including the existing proposals of the European Union for political reform,” they concluded.

The letter to President Biden was signed by professors Mile Babic, Fikret Causevic, Rasim Gacanovic, Kadrija Hodzic, Tatjana Konjic, Rusmir Mahmutcehajic, Ivo Markovic, Krsto Mijanovic, Zarko Papic, political activist Jakob Finci, historian Desmond Maurer, and MP Zdenko Vukic.