Showdown at the Bosnian OK Corral

Srecko Latal

I can almost hear the announcer bellowing over the drumbeat and roar of the audience. Ladies and Gentlemen: In the red corner, unwavering and resolute, stands Republika Srpska Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, a champion of Bosnian Serb national, ethnic, historic, economic, social, sport and cultural interests. In the blue corner, Bosnia’s new High Representative, Valentin Inzko, the latest defender of the international community’s dwindling authority and protector of Bosnia’s flailing constitutional integrity.

Just like Kirk Douglas (Doc Holiday) and Dennis Hopper (Billy Clanton) in the epic 1957 Hollywood movie, over the weekend Inzko and Dodik exchanged public challenges and are now slowly circling each other.

They are now waiting for high noon, which in this case will come on June 11, by which date Inzko ordered Dodik and the rest of the Bosnian Serb leadership to withdraw their disputed May 14 Assembly Resolution.

According to the international community, this resolution challenges not only the Bosnian constitution and territorial integrity, but also the very foundations of western authority in Bosnia.

The previous sheriff (High Representative), Miroslav Lajcak, also tried to duel with Dodik, but failed miserably after Dodik saw through his bluff and revealed that his gun wasn't loaded and there was no international cavalry on his flank.

Disgraced and disappointed, Lajcak announced that he no longer wished to ride a dead horse and left Tombstone (Sarajevo) for good three months ago.

Then Inzko came to town and took up the empty post, which many locals and foreigners saw as a mission impossible.

Inzko started gently, talking softly and avoiding conflicts. But he travelled frequently to other big cities, rallying support left and right. Finally, after American and European cavalries pledged their allegiances and after the Russian armada remained relatively immobile, Inzko made his move.

He called up Dodik and set the June 11 deadline. Dodik flinched, but rose to the challenge. He appeared to be in no mood for dueling, but his reputation and lifestyle (as he knows it) were at stake, so he stepped forward and flatly rejected Inzko's ultimatum.

Women and children are slowly abandoning the streets as the two gunslingers start slowly measuring each other. Onlookers peek over windowsills while tumbleweed slowly rolls over empty dusty streets in the gentle midday breeze. Vultures start flying overhead. They all wait for the first blood.

Both Inzko and Dodik hope that the other one will blink first and yield. Both have too much to lose.
For Dodik, losing this duel could be the beginning of the end of his reign. If he yields, he can easily see himself locked in a cell for all those ambiguous construction and development deals that are linked to his name.

For Inzko, losing this duel would mean much more than the end of the beginning of his mandate. It would mean a definitive end of the international authority in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That would open doors for Dodik to either continue blocking the country or bring it to its final days if, when and how it pleases him.

Just like in the original movie, a key role in this fight belongs to Burt Lancaster (US Marshal Wyatt Earp). In this tale he is played by the US ambassador to Bosnia, Charles English.

As the duel was called, he puffed up his chests and came out on the empty street to support Inzko. But does he pack a real punch? And will he deliver if and when the bullets start flying?

I don’t know that, but I know that this duel will likely determine the future of Tombstone and the whole land west of the muddy Drina River.

Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday, as well as Clanton clan have been holding their positions stubbornly for too long, so that there is little room for a compromise or truce. Or is there……?

Be at the OK Corral on the high noon and find out.