Bassim
VIP Member
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2008
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Bosnian
- Home Country
- Bosnia Herzegovina
- Current Location
- Sweden
This is the fifth part of my short story, Friends. Please would you correct my mistakes.
After the Communist Party ceased to exist, the political vacuum was filled by the nationalistic parties. The Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks, instead of the Communism and Tito’s legacy could now vote for their respective parties. Their leaders appeared on TV and in front of large crowds, which were ecstatic, waving their nationalistic flags. They liked what they heard and they did not ask themselves if these speeches were propaganda, manipulations or truth. Milan and Omer went to all three rallies, just of curiosity. What they heard and saw made them deeply disturbed. The three leaders were not talking about the economy and investments but about a nation as if it was the most important thing in the world. The Serbian leader told his supporters that Bosnia would always remain part of Yugoslavia, the Bosniak leader told his followers that the future of Bosnia is only one – the independence, and the Croat leader told his people that the Croats would create their own entity, which would protect the interests of the Croatian people. How all these ideas and plans were going to be implemented in the future, and how all three nations were going to live together in peace, nobody could answer. Sane citizens had hoped that nationalism would disappear when people understood that it would create only conflicts and bloodshed, but unfortunately, sanity had become so rare. The masses had become hypnotised. They followed their leaders slavishly and swallowed their messages as the messianic calls. They had put their fate in the hands of the three men, who were neither highly intelligent nor wise, and knew nothing about the economy, industry and production. Nevertheless, when the first democratic elections took place, the three nationalist parties won the majority.
Omer did not bother to vote, because he did not want to have a bad conscience. How to vote for someone who was pushing the country towards the abyss? But Milan decided to vote for the Serbian Democratic Party, under the leadership of a certain Dr Karadzic. Milan could not have imagined living in a country that would be independent and thus separated from Serbia. He had some family members living there and some good friends, whom he visited now and then. The thought that one day he would need a passport to travel there filled him with uneasiness. He and Omer discussed this issue many times and they could not agree. Omer did not like Mr Milosevic and could not have imagined living under his presidency, which was gradually turning into a dictatorship. Neither Mr Karadzic with his thick bushy hair inspired confidence. His talk about the sacred Serbian soil and the Serbian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire hundreds of years ago, were just a nationalistic rhetoric, which would add fuel to the fire. Soon you could sense that the country was becoming more polarized with each day. As he worked in the operating room and performed dozens of arthroscopies every week, Omer wished to have an instrument to change the destiny of his homeland. His patients came to him limping and hobbling, but after about half an hour, he and his little instrument did wonders and made them walk normally again. Now Bosnia was hobbling towards a quagmire, and nobody seemed to be able to change its destiny.
After months of bickering and quarrelling in the parliament, the Bosniak and the Croat parties had decided to have a referendum about the Bosnian independence from Yugoslavia. The Serbs had decided to boycott it. Milan did what Mr Karadzic told his nation and stayed at home, but Omer and his wife voted for independence, as hundreds of thousands Bosniaks and Croats did. That same day, Milan, angry and disappointed, went to his local Serbian Democratic Party and became its member. He could not simply stay passive and watch how his lovely Yugoslavia was disappearing from the map, and millions of Serbs were becoming a minority in the new independent states. To the Bosnian independence, the Serbs responded with the creation of his own state, which they called The Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They ignored Bosnian institutions and established their own. People were waiting with bated breath what was going to happen. Milan went to the party meetings and there he could hear the high-ranking party members talking about the ethnic cleansing. The Bosniaks and Croats were going to be forcibly moved to the territory under the control of the Bosniak government. Only a few percent of them would be allowed to stay in the Serbian Republic. The war was inevitable and the Serbs had to prepare themselves if they did not want to face a complete annihilation. The following days Milan would meet Omer in hospital, asking himself what was going to happen to his friend. Was he going to help him to stay in the town together with a few percent of those who were seen as loyal to the new government? But how Omer could have been loyal when he voted for the independence and liked neither Mr Milosevic nor Mr Karadzic.
TO BE CONTINUED
After the Communist Party ceased to exist, the political vacuum was filled by the nationalistic parties. The Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks, instead of the Communism and Tito’s legacy could now vote for their respective parties. Their leaders appeared on TV and in front of large crowds, which were ecstatic, waving their nationalistic flags. They liked what they heard and they did not ask themselves if these speeches were propaganda, manipulations or truth. Milan and Omer went to all three rallies, just of curiosity. What they heard and saw made them deeply disturbed. The three leaders were not talking about the economy and investments but about a nation as if it was the most important thing in the world. The Serbian leader told his supporters that Bosnia would always remain part of Yugoslavia, the Bosniak leader told his followers that the future of Bosnia is only one – the independence, and the Croat leader told his people that the Croats would create their own entity, which would protect the interests of the Croatian people. How all these ideas and plans were going to be implemented in the future, and how all three nations were going to live together in peace, nobody could answer. Sane citizens had hoped that nationalism would disappear when people understood that it would create only conflicts and bloodshed, but unfortunately, sanity had become so rare. The masses had become hypnotised. They followed their leaders slavishly and swallowed their messages as the messianic calls. They had put their fate in the hands of the three men, who were neither highly intelligent nor wise, and knew nothing about the economy, industry and production. Nevertheless, when the first democratic elections took place, the three nationalist parties won the majority.
Omer did not bother to vote, because he did not want to have a bad conscience. How to vote for someone who was pushing the country towards the abyss? But Milan decided to vote for the Serbian Democratic Party, under the leadership of a certain Dr Karadzic. Milan could not have imagined living in a country that would be independent and thus separated from Serbia. He had some family members living there and some good friends, whom he visited now and then. The thought that one day he would need a passport to travel there filled him with uneasiness. He and Omer discussed this issue many times and they could not agree. Omer did not like Mr Milosevic and could not have imagined living under his presidency, which was gradually turning into a dictatorship. Neither Mr Karadzic with his thick bushy hair inspired confidence. His talk about the sacred Serbian soil and the Serbian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire hundreds of years ago, were just a nationalistic rhetoric, which would add fuel to the fire. Soon you could sense that the country was becoming more polarized with each day. As he worked in the operating room and performed dozens of arthroscopies every week, Omer wished to have an instrument to change the destiny of his homeland. His patients came to him limping and hobbling, but after about half an hour, he and his little instrument did wonders and made them walk normally again. Now Bosnia was hobbling towards a quagmire, and nobody seemed to be able to change its destiny.
After months of bickering and quarrelling in the parliament, the Bosniak and the Croat parties had decided to have a referendum about the Bosnian independence from Yugoslavia. The Serbs had decided to boycott it. Milan did what Mr Karadzic told his nation and stayed at home, but Omer and his wife voted for independence, as hundreds of thousands Bosniaks and Croats did. That same day, Milan, angry and disappointed, went to his local Serbian Democratic Party and became its member. He could not simply stay passive and watch how his lovely Yugoslavia was disappearing from the map, and millions of Serbs were becoming a minority in the new independent states. To the Bosnian independence, the Serbs responded with the creation of his own state, which they called The Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They ignored Bosnian institutions and established their own. People were waiting with bated breath what was going to happen. Milan went to the party meetings and there he could hear the high-ranking party members talking about the ethnic cleansing. The Bosniaks and Croats were going to be forcibly moved to the territory under the control of the Bosniak government. Only a few percent of them would be allowed to stay in the Serbian Republic. The war was inevitable and the Serbs had to prepare themselves if they did not want to face a complete annihilation. The following days Milan would meet Omer in hospital, asking himself what was going to happen to his friend. Was he going to help him to stay in the town together with a few percent of those who were seen as loyal to the new government? But how Omer could have been loyal when he voted for the independence and liked neither Mr Milosevic nor Mr Karadzic.
TO BE CONTINUED