SREBRENICA NA RTS 

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Srebrenica Historical Project

Postbus 90471

2509LL

Den Haag, The Netherlands

+31 64 878 09078  (The Netherlands)

+381 64 403 3612  (Serbia)

Internet site: www.srebrenica-project.com

E-mail: srebrenica.historical.project@... 

A FOOLISH REACTION, BY ANY STANDARD

          The Bosnian Moslem community in Sweden has collected over 1,000 signatures on a petition to Swedish State Television to desist from broadcasting Norwegian filmmakers Ola Flium’s and David Hebditch’s documentary “Sarajevo Ricochet.” The film follows the authors’ other controversial documentary, “Srebrenica: A City Betrayed,” which also challenges stereotype preconceptions about the Bosnian war and has been denounced vigorously by the Bosnian Moslems in Norway.

            The Swedish Bosnian Moslem community also has demanded an apology  from the Swedish State Television Network for broadcasting earlier the Srebrenica documentary. The reasoning offered by Mr. Džebrail Bajramović, president of the “Islamic Bosniak Community” in Göteborg, Sweden, is most curious and at the same time characteristic of the arguments that are usually employed by Bosnian Moslem spokespersons in analogous situations. He said that if Swedish public opinion, which  according to him is not well versed in the history of the recent conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were to be exposed to the Norwegian documentary it “might gain the impression that in Kravica genocide was committed against the Serbs, that 1,300 Serbs were murdered there, and that what happened in Srebrenica was an act of revenge.”

            Mr. Bajramović’s plaintive cry against the perpetuation of such subversive impressions was followed by an unequivocal threat: “We have addressed protest letters to all the relevant institutions. If they broadcast the other movie [i. e. “Sarajevo Ricochet”] we will file suit against SVT [Swedish State Television Network] for denying genocide.” [1]

            In fact, “Sarajevo Ricochet” does not even attempt to deal with the charge of genocide from a juridical standpoint, but focuses instead on other issues which may fairly be characterised as also highly unpalatable from the Bosnian Moslem standpoint (e. g. Sarajevo regime’s unsavory links to Mujahedin outfits and the atrocities they committed against the non-Moslem population, as well as the abundant illegal arming of the Moslem army, with the connivance of some Western governments, which cannot leave the propaganda image of a helpless victim completely intact). But regardless of how the matter is viewed by some of the actors in the Bosnian conflict, the only fact of any significance is that these issues are being examined by responsible researchers in democratic Western societies, where freedom of inquiry is sacred.

            What the diaspora Bosniak community and their spokespersons are demanding is the suppression of that freedom where it threatens to call into question some key aspects of their wartime narrative. It is remarkable, and it must be pointed out, that the other option – engaging Messrs. Flium and Hebditch in debate and demonstrating the unreliability of their sources and the falsity of their conclusions – apparently was never considered by the Bosniaks.

            But that is precisely the response that we wish to recommend to them, and for their own good. Intimidation of the rapidly growing number of dissidents will soon become logistically impossible while from the public relations standpoint it is already turning into a disaster for the Bosnian Moslem community. The vindictive “genocide denial” lawsuit filed against the tiny Swiss periodical, “La Nation,” clearly designed to bankrupt it economically and thus lead to its extinction, is an example of out of control coercive reactions in situations where Bosnian Moslems would profit far more if they engaged in reasoned dialogue, regardless of its possible outcome.[2]

            Our NGO, Srebrenica Historical Project, has always advocated civilised dialogue, without any outcome preconditions, as the only way to conduct the debate on what happened in Srebrenica and in other theatres during the Bosnian war. Of course, if one rejects the very concept of debate in principle, our proposal will not have been seen as having much merit. But the rejectionists should then be prepared for the slow and steady erosion of their dogmatic position, with the possibility of its eventual collapse in the court of public opinion.

            Reactions such as the one from Göteborg are not just a huge tactical miscalculation on the part of the Sarajevo leadership, which remains frozen in its wartime mode of thinking; it is also an admission of intellectual inferiority which is quite degrading to the Moslem people of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

            The message it sends is two-fold. First, that they are afraid to tackle the facts in an open encounter with those who hold a different point of view. In Western societies, where civilised discourse is the norm, that can only imply that the Bosniaks are unsure of their facts and fear discreditation of their views in the event they were tested in unfettered intellectual combat. Indeed, in the long run infantile demands for the suppression of contrary points of view are bound to do more to cast doubt in the mind of the Western public about the Bosniaks’ cherished version of events than any efforts that could be made by “genocide deniers” toward the accomplishment of that purpose.

            Secondly, their timing, as they crudely seek to enforce compliance with their agenda, is disastrous as well. The great spiritual and cultural tradition of Islam, and its signal contributions to human civilisation, are under intense attack in the West and through the use of sophisticated propaganda are being reduced to a caricature. Churlish reactions such as Mr. Bajramović’s, which reinforce the image of Islam as an irrational faith which is incompatible with the liberal principles of the West, cannot but do great harm to Moslems in Europe generally, and to the reputation of Bosnian Moslems in particular.

            There is no doubt that a great number of innocent Moslems have suffered enormously during the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the nineties, side by side with their innocent neighbours from the other communities. The evidence of that suffering is clear and cannot be diminished or denied by anyone. But a decade and a half after the war’s end it is now time to take a professional and dispassionate look at what happened. That is a task for scholars and responsible representatives of all the involved communities; it is not a job for propagandists or intimidators.