Bosnia on fire: a rebellion on Europe’s periphery | ROAR Magazine

Bosnia on fire: a rebellion on Europe’s periphery | ROAR Magazine

On Friday, February 7, government
buildings were on fire all over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its people,
silent for a long time, finally decided to speak their mind. And when
they did, what came out was not just words — it was a roar. It was fire,
stones and heavy fighting with the police. The most impressive and
symbolic picture of the first few days of the rebellion was the one
depicting a burning government building in Tuzla, the city where it all
began, with the graffiti “death to nationalism” written on it. Since
nationalism has long been a favorite refuge of the country’s political
elites, who used it to justify their political and economic oppression,
this was indeed a powerful message.

Prime
Ministers of cantons in Bosnia and Herzegovina started handing in their
resignations, one by one. On Sunday, February 9, the Croatian Prime
Minister Zoran Milanović went to Mostar — a city in Bosnia and
Herzegovina with a large Croatian population — to meet with the Croat
leaders there, while the President of the Republic of Srpska (the
Serbian part of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Milorad Dodik, was summoned to
Serbia to meet with the first Vice-President Aleksandar Vučić (the
unofficial leader of Serbia). The reasons were clear. Both the political
elites in Croatia and Serbia are afraid, among other things, that what
some already call the “Bosnian revolution” may spill over the borders
into their countries.

 

With its radical demands and
popular assemblies, the rebellion in Bosnia and Herzegovina shows that
the global cycle of struggles is far from over.