THE POPULATION CENSUS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - THE CONTINUATION OF WAR BY OTHER MEANS In a state built upon wroung foundations, such as post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina, even the most usual things necessarily get wrong connotations. The population census, after the previous and pre war one from 1991, was not held in a regular period in 2001 and 2011. It was stopped by the Bosniak political elite, on the ground that it would be cementing the results made by ethnic cleansing during the war. The other two sides i.e Croats and Serbs, spitefully emphasized that the Bosniak elite was avoiding the census because it would dispel the myth about the multi ethnic character of Sarajevo and other territories which were held by the ABIH after the war.
There were speculations that Serbs, and especially the Croats are slowly “draining“ to their “reserve homelands“, while the number of Bosniaks is growing due to higher birthrate and immigration from the Sandžak region and that the population census will be done once it is esimated that Bosniaks/Muslims will compose more than a half of the total population. But all of this, without the completion of the census, is a mere speculation. After years of wrangling, a deal was reached and the census will be done after 22 years in early October.
Written by: Nino RaspudićThe census is an achievement of civilization, and in organized states, it is held for millennia. It is needless to point out that Joseph and Mary traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, just because of the census. In happier countries the census is, first and foremost, considered to be an important statistical tool for determining the important demographic facts, and without them, there cannot be a serious national strategy, starting with the economic policy, and so forth. But in Bosnia and Herzegovina, unfortunately, is not so, where the census is seen as the continuation of war by other means.
The upcoming census created a political climate that resembles the former arms race. On all three sides there are various events which call “their people” to “attend” the census and declare in a desirable manner. The three fundamental issues which generate the census race are national and religious affiliation, and language. For Croats and Serbs there is no doubt - Catholic Croat speaks Croatian, Serb-Orthodox speaks Serbian. Therefore, tautological and empty calls which explain to the Croats how to declare themselves as Croats speak Croatian are rather funny.
I guess someone, who is a Croat, knows that is a Croat, the same way it is expected from a Catholic to feel as a member of the Catholic Church. Unfortunate is the person which needs to be taught of belonging to a national or religious community by someone else. Without such "members", any "club" would not have lost much. Therefore, it is superfluous to point out such things, but it is important to clearly inform people who live between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia that, by participating in the census in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they do not lose any of the rights in Croatia, as some of them may think after many years of media sadism and deliberate lying.
For Bosniaks the thing is more complicated. The political, scientific and cultural elite of Bosnian Muslims during the war in the "Bosniak Parliament" in September 1993 at the Holiday Inn hotel has in their Declaration, in their own words, “returned into circulation” the national name of the Muslims - Bosniaks. A journalist, who accompanied the historic session, wrote: "The night in which the Parliament was in session - we fell asleep as Muslims, and awoke as Bosniaks."
It is the legitimate right of every nation to be called as they want, even when somebody else disapproves with that. One notable Croatian writer from Sarajevo wrote that " 'Bosniak' is an imperial name of Bosnian Muslims", expressing discomfort of those for which Bosnianhood meant something more than a regional identity. The choice of a language was an additional misunderstanding. The Bosniak Parliament did not choose the logical name - Bosniak, but - Bosnian.
Serbs have consistently opposed it, calling the language of Bosniaks - Bosniak, pointing out that what is in Bosnian is called Bosnian, in Serbian language is called Bosniak. Since then, the term "Bosnia" and "Bosnian" are being filled with new political significance, and, as a consequence, the Bosniak unitarists programmatically omit the second part of a complex name of the state, and instead of "Bosnia and Herzegovina", when talking about the state, the gradually just say “Bosnia”.
When you say to a foreign journalist, for example, that in the country of Bosnia are living Bosniaks who speak Bosnian, and Serbs and Croats who speak their own languages, it is clear who are the natives, and who are the "tenants".
Additional confusion is created because, unlike the exclusionary Serbian and Croatian nationalism, the Bosniak is acting fraudulently by using inclusive strategic “pseudocivic” option. Bosniak politics oscillates all the time between "Bosnianhood" as a civic option or forms of state patriotism and “Bosniakhood” as of particular national option. Thanks to that, the Bosniak nationalism received a certain advantage in the international community and the ignorant civil societies in adjacent countries, but the tables have been turned, so that, faced with the census , some of the former Muslims ( by nationality) were in a dilemma whether to declare as "Bosniak" , "Bosnian" or "Muslim", as in the last census. Thus started the campaign "Nation: Bosniak, faith: Islam, language: Bosnian."
All three nations are very busy campaigning, that is, calling people from diaspora which have not cut all connection with Bosnia and Herzegovina, to register and participate. A speculation that the future political system of Bosnia and Herzegovina directly depends on the results of the census "race listing" is contributing to that race, that is for certain, but that speculation is wrong.
Even if Bosniaks form more than 50% of the total population, Bosnia and Herzegovina will not become their exclusive nation-state, nor shall Croats, in the event if they form less than 10% of the total population, lose constituency. However, the numbers may have important symbolic meaning and psychological impact on the decision makers on the future restructuring of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Therefore, when such a race has already been imposed, it is important to participate in the census. It will, unfortunately, not give a true picture of the situation on the ground, but it will give a list of people who cared to participate in the census of Bosnia and Herzegovina. And in the current political climate that is not unimportant.
Večernji Listhttp://www.vecernji.hr/kolumne/popis-st ... mna-612641 Translated by hercegbosna. org
