Austrian Diplomat in Bosnia’s Mission Impossible

Srecko Latal

It is now up to the Peace Implementation Council, at its next meeting at the end of March, to confirm Inzko's appointment, but at the moment that seems as a mere technicality. 

And so, 3.5 million anxious Bosnians and Herzegovinians, some 330 million anxious Americans and 730 million anxious Europeans await Inzko’s arrival with mixed feelings and great expectations. People in Africa, Asia and Australia are watching too, but at least they are not that anxious since they are not directly involved in Bosnia’s peace-keeping process. Yet.

Some 1.5 million (estimated) Bosnian Serbs expect to see as little of the new High Representative and his broad governing so-called Bonn powers, as possible. They also expect him to guarantee the existence of the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska within its legal and geographical outlines given by the Dayton accord.

They also expect Inzko to put the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim)-Croat Federation under control so that it’s suicidal political, social and economic policies effect as little of Republika Srpska as possible. In the end, Bosnian Serbs expect Inzko not to stand in their way if they, for whatever reason, decide to separate from the rest of the country.

Some 1.9 million (estimated) Bosniaks have a completely different set of expectations. They expect Inzko to use Bonn powers at least three times a day, after every meal. He should single handedly abolish Republika Srpska, since they are convinced that such an abomination created in blood and gore should not be allowed to continue to exist.

Inzko should also arrest Republika Srpska Premier Milorad Dodik and take him to somewhere far away. Then, Inzko should draft a miraculous set of political, economic and social policies, that would pull the Federation out of the gutter and bring the entire country to the EU by the end of the year.

At the end, Inzko should hold a serious conference with SDA Leaders Sulejman Tihic and Bakir Izetbegovic, SZBH leader Haris Silajdzic, SDP leader Zlatko Lagumdzija, Islamic Community leader Reis Mustafa Ceric, Avaz owner Fahrudin Radoncic, evaluate and analyze all of them and then finally tell Bosniaks who is the true best defender of their rights and interests in the country. So that they finally know whom to vote for in the next elections.

Some 700,000 (estimated) Bosnian Croats are a bit more moderate in their expectations. They only want Inzko to single handedly establish a third entity and create Croat TV and radio station. And maybe appoint a Croat mayor of Mostar.

Believe it or not, the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina have some joint expectations from Inzko too. They expect him to fix whatever is the problem with their country and improve their living standards, so that they can continue doing as little as possible in order to take responsibility for their own lives. 

An unknown percentage of people of Bosnia and Herzegovina who believe to be or at least consider themselves to be intellectuals expect Inzko to recognize their intellectual supremacy and include them in the decision making process and eventually re-educate all the others. The second, seeminlgy bigger group - those who are proud to be "new nationalists" - expect Inzko to recognise their historical national supremacy and eventually abolish the last traces of communism/socialism from the country. The problem with this is that many members of these two groups keep on switching sides every now and then, so Inzko may have a real problem there.

Some 730 million anxious Europeans and 330 million anxious Americans want Inzko to finally fix the “Bosnian” problem so that they don’t have to watch, hear or read anything else about Bosnia ever again, unless it is related to the Winter Olympic Games, chevapchichi  or burek (if you don’t know what that is, well, too bad, you’ll have to come here and find out by yourself)

At the end, a few hundred OHR and EUSR employees in Bosnia expect from Inzko to keep his dual offices open for as long as possible, so that they continue receiving good salaries without having to pay taxes or take responsibility for their own deeds.

And so the list of expectations continue. I am sure that I could go on like this for the rest of the day. I have just heard rumors that Inuits and Aborigines too have been contemplating what they expect from Inzko. Yet I have to stop and put this blog to an end because my other chores are waiting. Plus, I already start feeling deeply concerned and even sorry for Mr Inzko. He is too nice a person for such a task. Everyone is.

I am not sure that anyone deserves this job, no matter how many tens of thousands of euros is the monthly paycheck. I am not sure that even Tom Cruise and his slick moves could do the trick in this Mission Impossible. Even Superman and Spiderman pale in the magnitude of such expectations. Yet, more I write about this task, one person more and more often come to my mind. It's neither a hero from Marvel Comics, nor from action movies.

Tito! Only he managed to keep all this together for so long. Yet some argue that Tito, just like Paddy Ashdown, has done this through force and suppression and that such measures only contributed to the chaos we are now facing. So you go figure what we need.

So, Welcome Mr Inzko.