Is it time for our leaders to learn to follow?

Syrian vote! We’ll be doing some killing again. Cannot be avoided, apparently. Or perhaps it could have been avoided, but the politicians of today couldn’t avoid it; miss out on the opportunity, sort of speak? ‘Politics is a ‘brutal’ business’ we’re told. I guess we should admire them? Aren’t they special? Here we are, ordinary mortals, objecting to murdering innocent people, but they, the politicians, are ‘strong’ enough to get on with it; in fact, they can get on with it with smiles and laughter. It is really a frightening sight. I’m all for stiffer-upper-lip, but to have a stiffer-upper-lip you have to feel something. They look as if they feel nothing at all. What’s worse, it seems they’re looking down on anything that makes humans human and not just animal.

As an activist, involved in community, chatting to ordinary people a lot, I’ve noticed that generally people are increasingly valuing ‘human’ qualities. Just recently there was a German advert about family and Christmas, a normal advert about an old man who just wants to see his children and he plays a rather cruel move to get them to come. People all over Europe loved it. Made them cry. I can see why? I’ve seen how much they miss their own parents. I’ve seen parents long for their children. But hey, so long as the department for statistics is showing that we are happier than ever before, that’s really all that matters.

So, era of wars and people longing for a ‘human touch’ – that’s how I would define our world which I am increasingly ashamed of; I hate the thought of what we’ll leave to our children, especially if things get worse. At the same time politicians are almost proud to be brutal. Can we see a connection? Surely it is not hard to connect the dots, see how this came about, and what needs to change if we don’t want to F up completely – I’m thinking with the weapons we have today, it’ll be a frigging nightmare.

Anybody still remembers Princess Diana? Gosh, we liked her, didn’t we? Could it be the ‘human touch’? Surely we haven’t been trying to get our politicians to see the ‘Importance of being human’ for so long, yet they completely missed it? How could that be? Has the world of politics become a world of its own and nothing to do with us except for the charade called ‘the pre-elections campaign’?

If there is another war in Bosnia EU is to blame

Why is this title true?

In short, the title is true because they refuse to act while peace is holding on by the fingertips and everyone can tell.

Peace in Bosnia was brought by Dayton Peace Accord (Dayton); i.e. 1992-95 war ended when Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia signed this ridiculous document. Any sane person should have laughed at Dayton. The document doesn’t know if it wants to go left or right, sit or stand. It guarantees soverginity, territorial integrity and political independence to Bosnia, but trust it to people who carried out ethnic cleansing in attempt to destroy Bosnia. It believes that safety of Bosnia is ensured if we equalise all armies: The legitimate army of Bosnia, dedicated (like every other army of any country) to defend Bosnia, and two gorilla forces one acting on behalf of and under the command of Croatia, the other on behalf of and under the command of Serbia – this is why signature of Serbia and Croatia could stop a war in Bosnia. So, equalising legitimate armed forces with illegitimate armed force acting to destroy the country become one armed force. This armed force is sort of doing okay, but as soon as politicians decide to ‘make a move’ what can a rational person expect from this armed force?

Timing of Dayton was also very interesting. Three years of mass killing, politicians met and accomplished nothing at all. During these three years Bosnian legitimate army faced arms embargo. Forces acting on behalf of Serbia and Croatia had their supply of weapons from Serbia and Croatia. It is also worth noting that at the beginning of the war, many people in Bosnia thought that it made no difference if they join the Army of Bosnia or the Croat forces since they had mutual enemy – ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’; no it is not! This ‘friendship’ changed in 1993 when politics in Croatia changed. So, at the beginning Bosnian army fought mainly with weapons they stole from their enemy.

Come 1995, soon after the genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnian army becomes strong enough to put up a fair fight. Suddenly Dayton emerges! The war is stopped, or at least paused. Political war carried on and people of Bosnia have been suffering it for 20 years. The psychological torment they face cannot be explained.

Bosnia is a country of four million people, fourteen governments, plus over 140 municipalities. It has three presidents, each one has to be chosen by a particular group of people: one for Bosniaks, one for Croats and one for Serbs. In the last elections which were held in 2014 the three presidents combined couldn’t scrape up 20% of the votes of the voting body in Bosnia. But apparently, we have democracy and these guys are ‘legitimate’ representatives of Bosnia – of course they are, they made the Elections Act to make sure they can’t lose, however, European politicians refuse to take this into consideration. They refuse to accept that our ‘legitimate’ representatives were chosen by their friends, family and employees – oh yeah, Bosnian government in the biggest employer in Bosnia. Plus, they buy votes.

These three presidents are yet to agree on anything, and of course not, two of them want Bosnia deleted off the map and they use it to help neighbouring countries, the third is there just to see if he can scrape up something for himself. Evidence of this also lies in the fact that they have allowed ‘entities’ to get more power – Bosnia has two entities, one is Serbian, the ethnically cleansed part, and the other is federation of Bosniaks and Croats (yes, in Bosnia, if you kill innocent people on mass scale you will be rewarded). In fact, Bosnia has 13 ministers for most things, such as healthcare. For something to happen in favour of healthcare in Bosnia, all 13 have to agree. Bosnia doesn’t have a strategy for healthcare simply because Serbian entity refuses to have one. No other reason. And then, these smart politicians in EU tell us how we can act on politicians at ‘local’ level – they mean entities and cantons (entity of Federation is divided into 10 cantons). This is such a ridiculous idea, that I’m lost for words, but we tried it anyway just to please the ‘heads’. One year of chasing a piece of paper from one door to the next made me want to scream. And this was just to get our government to employ a designated vet to sort out the stray dogs. We failed. The only time citizen activism has any chance in Bosnia is when a group in that local area who have the right to vote in that area raises a question and we ALL support them. End even then it is not a guarantee. Why? Because the government in Bosnia has power in numbers! Plus power in money, they own the labour market, they own the courts of law, they even own the local communities. What we have in Bosnia is not democracy but something between feudalism and dictatorship.

EU turns a blind eye! You might wonder, why should EU get involved? Because someone was smart enough to add OHR to Dayton. While EU politicians praise themselves on Annex 7 which states that refugees must be permitted to return to their place of origin (women who were gang raped multiple times and on regular basis in concentration camps in 1992, met their rapists on the streets when they returned to Prijedor after the war and had to endure being laughed at by the same rapists, and if that wasn’t enough, those who have returned to this day do not have basic human rights), the real good part is Annex ten about the High Representative who has more power in Bosnia than the government of Bosnia, I guess because there was at least one reasonable person at the table when Dayton was written of they left this ‘life boat’ in case the iceberg that is Dayton, sunk a country that is Titanic. But, instead of getting involved, EU has decided they are not going to. According to Dayton, they are there to ensure fair and democratic elections in Bosnia – they failed MISERABLY!!!

Citizens of Bosnia do not want to be divided. Large majority can tell that the situation is leading to a war. After the floods last year citizens realised that we do not have a government. So, citizens do not want to be divided, but Dayton is made so that those in power cannot stay in power unless citizens are divided. Of course, they push for divisions. They push to get people to hate one another. Bosnia, like every country in the world, has extremists and lunatics. In other countries governments make sure that those people do not have power. In Bosnia, politicians of those same countries have inflicted a system that drives divisions and gives power to the ‘lunatics and fascists’. Now, they refuse to act even though they have the right and responsibility.

We keep being told that citizens must do more. More of what?! What should we do? Tells us exactly what we should do because we are at the stage where we regret letting international community into Bosnia in the 1990s. The war would have been our deal, we would have dealt with it, they just made things worse.

We are being told that this is our problem? Oh really, funny that Dayton is in English and only English. If it were something we chose, surely it would be a document that people of Bosnia could at least read let alone understand?

What should be done? It is a country of 4 million people. Activists in Bosnia have a joke: We don’t need a president, we need a major. For now, one government democratically elected (one person one vote), municipalities and an Act of Treason. Five years from now we’ll come back to the table to see what else we could do to make it even better. But for now, stop dilly-dallying! You are putting our lives at risk! People of Bosnia have tolerated Dayton for 20 years, they can tolerate anything and survive anything but a war. And it seems the EU is hell-bent on causing another war in Bosnia. Why?! To help our politicians escape justice for all that they have done? Are you part of what they have done?

Please act!!! There is no need for bloodshed when pen can fix this.

Identity of a Refugee

I often wonder what would happen if someone said ‘Refugees all over the world, unite!’, and they did. Would we have another country? Would they be another nation? What kind of nation would they be?

I have 23 years of experience of being a refugee. The country I ended up in, and I mean ended up – we barely made it out of war-torn Bosnia into Croatia, we stayed in Croatia in a refugee camp for three months, taking each day as it came since Croatia was also still in a war, but it was a ‘mild’ war, and to be frank, we’ weren’t welcome; some months on Croatia and Bosnia will also go into a war on Bosnian territory. Anyway, we couldn’t stay and we had nowhere to go. Eventually, someone came and said ‘Do you want to go to Britain, the flight leaves in an hour?’ So, we ended up in Britain. We arrived on a small private jet, four mothers and 21 children. The flight that normally lasts two hours, lasted seven hours. In other words, first time I took a flight anywhere, was in a small private jet, we sat on the floor, evenly space out as we needed to keep the balance otherwise the plain couldn’t fly. I remember it was very cold. I don’t know where we landed, but when we did, as we all got up to make our way to the exit, the plain tilted on its tail. Outside we were greeted by reporters. I was one of the first to get out since I sat close to the door. When the plain tilted I was already on the steps. This was also the first time I saw reporters, multiple flashes of many cameras, and questions. We didn’t speak English so we had no idea what they were asking.

We were lead onto a bus. Some of the reporters joined us on the bus and my mother spoke to them in German – she studied German in school. Two hours on the bus, my mother asked what time we would arrive. The reporter replied ‘at about twelve’. My mother said “Alright, so in about three hours.” The reporter said “No, tomorrow at twelve in the afternoon.” As my mother told the other mothers this, they began crying, asking out loud ‘Where are they taking us?” My mother tried to calm them down, telling them that Britain is a nice country, but in truth, she had no idea and later she told me that she was also terrified.

I wish someone told me that this was the moment I got a new identity. I wish someone said that I will forever be a refugee. Nothing can change that. But, no one did. We didn’t know ‘them’ and ‘they’ didn’t know about us. Oh well, we live and learn.

Comparing that with what’s going on today, I’m pleased ‘the new refugees’ are better informed. Information could be the difference between spending many nights crying hopelessly in fear, or not crying but having a reason to hope that everything will be alright. Plus, they can keep in touch with their loved ones. God Almighty, I will never forget the hours we spent dialling a mile long number over some satellite to get through to our family just so that we know they’re alive, especially at times when we’d hear about some attack on the news.

When we left Bosnia, we were convinced we’d be back in a month or so. When we came to the UK, we thought we’d be there a year, two at the most. 23 years on, we are coming to terms with the ‘two country’ life. It might sound lovely to some, but imagine your heart being ripped and in two places at once. Travelling is one thing, this kind of life is something quite the opposite. I’m not complaining though; I was extremely lucky to ‘end up’ in the UK, a country that treated me with utmost humanity. I’ve graduated economics, completed a masters in Voluntary Action Management, and I’m determined to figure out the ‘third’ sector. I’ve even figured out a way to make myself useful for both countries (or at least I hope that will be the result of my labours) since I owe to both, I belong to both, I’m a citizen, a responsible citizen of both. No matter how hard it is to be a responsible citizen of one country, I believe I can accomplish to be a responsible citizen of two countries.

And this brings me back to my question: What kind of nation would refugees make? From my experience, and bear in mind that refugees and migrants are to very distinct groups of people, refugees are the most peace loving ‘nation’ you can ever hope for. No one appreciates peace and life more than those who have tasted war and death, or at least had a close call with death. There are also, in my opinion, at least three groups of refugee: 1. Refugees of ethnic cleansing – life at risk: 100%, 2. Refugees of war – life at risk: 80-90% 3. Refugee of persecution – this one is on individual basis and life at risk could range from 10-90%. ‘Life at risk’ basically means how likely they were to die if they hadn’t escaped.

Another characteristic I would point out about refugees is that they are grateful. People are generally grateful to those who save their life.

And, refugees long to return. There is something about being told to leave. Migrants choose to leave, refugees do not have this choice. They always long to return. Nostalgia has nothing to balance it out. Migrants, when they feel nostalgic remind themselves of the reasons they moved in the first place. Refugees do not have any reasons, all they have is nostalgia and it can be very painful. This is the only mistake I think UK made towards us; they never understood the importance of going back ‘home’ to face some hard truths and be the ones responsible to bring the country back to its feet. None of us cared much about the burned buildings, we were all prepared to face that, that can be fixed. But the way people change, hence the country, nothing can prepare you for that. All my education… I needed years to learn how to apply what I know in Bosnia. And the real problem is that I always planned to learn how to apply my knowledge in Bosnia, so that I can return to the UK and say: Right, if you want the Voluntary Sector to be of significant value to the UK, Charity Commission needs to become ‘this’. And I think this is the future of ‘Global village’, I think this is how the lessons learned in ‘chaos’ can help prevent chaos in another part of the world. And, shouldn’t that be our primary objective?

If I had a say, I wouldn’t turn anyway anyone. ‘When someone knocks on your door asking for help, you should give them the help you can.’ There are rules on how much one country can interfere in another. Why do we invade another country with our armies and not with our brains? Why is it okay to send troops and not politicians? I firmly believe that we can help migrants better in their own home. Why don’t we? Of course, refugees we’d have to take in, but I think they should be taught and encouraged to lead their own countries when the armed conflicts are over. If they choose not to go back, fair enough. But I sure some will choose to go back. Among them there might be future leaders who will bring the country back to life and make it a valuable member of our world. And who knows how much we all might benefit from that?