Every second year is an election year in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For this “heart shaped land” in the center of the forever-stigmatized Western Balkans, local and general elections have become the ideal stage for nationalist leaders to not only remind citizens of the dangers that permeate their country, but also to lay out their plans for protecting their respective ethnic community – be it Croat, Serb, or Bosniak. Such rhetoric, of course, has only hardened ingrained neighborly tension. Until recently, this fear-turned-radicalization was cast aside as a Balkan problem. However, with the rise of ISIS and the growing fear that “foreign fighters” are out to spell doom across the continent, Bosnia’s elections have – for the first time in 20 years – become a European problem.
Once the field of four years of bloodshed, Bosnia and Herzegovina is now a young (and perhaps forgotten) democracy. It remains heavily endowed by the international community. Financial assistance, capacity building, and infrastructure repairs have proceeded haphazardly over the last two decades by a host of international organizations, donors, and NGOs. The band-aid approach to development, alongside the hastily brokered 1995 Dayton Peace Accords (which spawned the country’s notoriously dense and inefficient constitution) and the EU’s lethargic plans for accession, has unintentionally turned Bosnia into an international “Frankenstein.” While violence has quelled, tensions have only grown as each of the three ethnic groups stake claim to the morsels of assistance.
Until the 1990s, Bosnia’s Muslim population was regarded as moderate. However, when war broke out in the early 1990s, the Salafi movement – an ultra-conservative movement within Sunni Islam – was “imported” by Saudi-sponsored mujahedeen fighters mobilized to fight alongside the drastically under-armed and under-funded Muslim Bosniaks against both Serbs and Croats. Extremist communities have remained ever since, offering an attractive refuge to young men and women deprived of any opportunity for economic prosperity.
While the localized dangers posed by angry young Croats and Serbs should not be trivialized, the global ascent of violent Islamic extremism has turned Bosnia and Herzegovina into the perfect incubator for the radicalization of Muslim Bosniaks and the recruitment of ISIS soldiers, as well as a transit country for Western European recruits en route to Syria. In the purview of international security, these young men and women taking up arms in countries they have never visited, alongside recruits they have never met, against enemies they have never encountered, are known as “foreign fighters.”
To combat the problems posed by returning foreign fighters, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ministry of Justice has (unofficially) shut down almost all external contact with high-risk prisoners – that is, Bosnian citizens who returned to Bosnia after they were in Syria – believed to be engaged in terrorism planning or executing. Furthermore, the Chief Prosecutor has arrested a number of Bosniaks allegedly tied to extremist Islamic groups. Decisive state action led to the arrest and conviction of Husein Bosnic, known as the unofficial leader of the Salafi movement in Bosnia.
Official data is that 280 foreign fighters from Bosnia were fighting in Syria and Iraq. At least 50 have returned. However, in 2016 no known travel was successfully made to Syria by any foreign fighter originating from Bosnia and two group attempts were prevented by the State Investigation and Protection Agency. The Islamic community of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued a number of statements condemning all illegal religious ceremonies, illegal mosques, and teachings outside of the authority decreed by the Islamic Community, including the Salafi community.
Despite the country and continent-wide dangers posed by foreign fighters and an ever-increasing radicalized population, this autumn’s local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina will likely be little more than a repetition of the already well-rehearsed nationalist orchestra favored by all three sides. Together with the highest unemployment rate in Europe, Bosnia’s ethnic tensions continue to be perpetuated by unstable power-sharing arrangements and a reticent international community. The politicization of security issues, created to conceal nationalist leaders’ own failures in the realm of internal socio-economic development, are on display by the ruling parties.
All the while, Bosnia’s moderate opposition remains largely dormant and lacks any strategic vision to counter what is by now an obvious “divide and conquer” strategy by extremists. Of course, the same might be said about the larger power centers in Europe. What remains constant is the inability of local politicians to tackle the issue first hand and determine why the pheonomenon of radicalized youth has occurred in the first place.
The politicization of security issues has already erupted in attacks on Zvornik’s police station and in the military barracks near Rajlovac; new war drums playing the same old songs. Like always, everything and nothing is up-for-grabs.
This time around – and for its own sake – Europe would be wise to pay more attention.
