There were removals before, but never like this. There were sanctions before, but never like this. There was war, too—but never like this. We will remember arrest warrants, long guns, helicopters, and the beginning of something new.
The U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Michael Murphy, and the High Representative without confirmation, Christian Schmidt, launched a blitz chess game in three clear moves—sanctions, law, and verdict. They placed opposition figures from Republika Srpska and the authorities in Sarajevo as pawns, prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina as bishops, and judges of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina as knights. By this I mean the strange movement of that piece, which could describe selective interpretation of legal rights, without any intention to compare Sena Uzunović to a noble animal.
With a bit of help from the sidelines—sanctions for close and extended family members, the imposition of some law—the board was set so that pawns, bishops, and knights were supposed to quickly checkmate the opponent. Fictional laws, a fictional trial and verdict, fictional elections—by November 23 they were all meant to deliver the infamous “checkmate.”
It turned out that the leadership of Republika Srpska had long since left the game, while those gathered around the board did not even notice that their opponents had chosen a card game instead. They played the diplomacy card.
While pawns, bishops, and knights rushed toward the king and queen, they failed to notice that diplomatic cards had been turned into airline tickets—and they were gone. Similar tickets existed in Sarajevo as well, but they were not used. While fixated on a chess game they believed they were winning, their cards faded and became unusable. The game ended and someone lost. But who loses in a game played with oneself?
There were removals before, but never like this. Serbian leadership was swiftly removed by foreign messiahs—without trials, without questions, without explanations. Indeed, there had been nothing like this before. Under the guise of law and justice, never has the judicial process been so devalued—not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but beyond.
There were sanctions before, but never like this. The leadership of the SDS felt them on their own skin, but not to this extent. Sanctions spared only household pets—yet even they felt the consequences.
There was war, too—bloody, civil. With unimaginable destruction and consequences. This was also war, but not that kind: it was war in gloves, forcing the opponent to destroy himself. It was a war in which both “ours” and “theirs” took part—against our own.
Someone will ultimately be held accountable for the years consumed by threats, and the winner will judge. We will meet that winner in the first week of October. Then Bosnia and Herzegovina will have a historic year. We have not had turning points in Bosnia and Herzegovina for a long time. Since that infamous Paris, this year smells like one.
Source: Atv
