Bosnian Muslim returnees to Foca blame their leaders for obstructing return

Source: Bosnia-Hercegovina Federation TV, Sarajevo,
in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1900 gmt 7 Feb 05

Excerpt from report on "60 Minutes" current affairs programme
aired by Bosnia-Hercegovina Federation TV on 7 February

[Presenter Bakir Hadziomerovic] -- The main office of the Party
of Democratic Action (SDA) [leading Bosnian Muslim political party in
Bosnia-Hercegovina] has betrayed the Bosniak [Bosnian Muslim] returnees to
Foca [eastern Bosnia] and it is a lie that 3,000 returnees have returned
to this town. We were told this by Foca's chief imam [Islamic clergyman],
Asim efendi Karovic, who has blamed the SDA leaders in Foca and Sarajevo
for the desperate living conditions of the scarce Bosniak returnees,
only 19 of whom live in the town itself. Due to this open criticism,
efendi Karovic has been subjected to criticism by religious officials
and hypocritical politicians gathered around Sulejman Tihic [chairman
of the SDA]. Zvonko Maric reports:

[Reporter Zvonko Maric] -- The truth about the criminal attacks against
Foca at the beginning of the aggression against Bosnia-Hercegovina has
been, to a significant extent, reported by numerous world media, as well
as the witnesses of the crime before the Hague tribunal, on the basis of
which this international court sentenced four Serb criminals from Foca
to years in prison. The trials of some persons are still in progress,
while many people are still unavailable for justice. However,
their responsibility for the slaughter and exodus of Foca's Bosniaks
is filed and supported by evidence and it is a matter of time before
the perpetrators will be brought to justice. Still, what is shocking
and incomprehensible for the public of Bosnia-Hercegovina and further
afield is the fact that even the leaders and the Bosniak intelligentsia
from Foca and a good part of southeastern Bosnia have treated the process
of return to their towns and settlements in a cowardly way and without
any patriotism or dignity.

[Himzo Bajrovic, president of the regional board for return to
southeastern Bosnia] -- There are places where there was no return at all,
for example Cajnice [municipality in eastern Bosnia]. I think that the
support the politicians expressed publicly is not sufficient. They should
have served as examples. Prominent personalities should have returned and
the ordinary people would have followed. Only the poor are returning now.
All those who come from this region and who have built houses in Sarajevo
are now considered to be traitors by the returnees. [Passage omitted]

[Reporter] -- Those poorer, but surely more honest people from Foca,
who returned to their pre-war property, will tell you that they
cannot understand the moral failure of Foca leaders who systematically
obstructed the return, referring to advocacy for return as if to
rural policy. The SDA offended returnees equally, treating them with
the most primitive deceitful methods. With sadness, as well as a
dose of humour, the returnees speak about Sulejman Tihic and his
escort from the party showing up before the media and allegedly donating
a two-ton lorry, apparently in order to help the returnees to Jelec.

[Murat Cano, president of local community of Jelec, village near Foca] --
We were happy, but the joy lasted for about 15 minutes because they were
in a hurry to get to other places, Tjentiste, Ustikolina and I don't know
where else. After 15 minutes they said that I had to return the keys of
the lorry, because something was allegedly wrong with the registration
of the vehicle. All of that took about half an hour, we returned the keys
and never saw the lorry again.

[Vehbija Drinjakovic, returnee to Jelec, near Foca] -- I saw Tihic
and Kebo [Bosnian minister for refugees] once in the Sarajevo Old Town,
it was the time of the Bayram prayer in the mosque. I asked Tihic about
the lorry. He probably did not know himself and said he would check.
[Passage omitted]

[Reporter] -- The keys of the lorry were later on donated in other
returnee places. This method was used by the international community
as well. For example, when the UNHCR donated a power saw to returnees
in Jelec, the returnees immediately sent four young men to be trained
to use it. After they had learned how to work the machine, this
international organization took it away. Despite constant humiliation
and obstructions, several hundreds of Bosniak returnees to villages
around Foca have stayed in their homes. While those who lived in the city
gave up on Foca and their homes, their ancestors' courtyards and gardens,
the returnees say that the people from Foca first betrayed and then
sold Foca.

[Muradif Cengic, president of Islamic Community office in Tuzla] --
Many objects (buildings) were reconstructed, but the majority were
sold. These objects are sold for a lower price than the international
community invested in the reconstruction.

[Hamed Efendic, mufti of Gorazde] -- Certainly we are offended and
hurt whenever we find out about a returnee, whose house has been
reconstructed, selling the house. [Passage omitted]

[Reporter] -- Our collocutors regard the theft of construction materials
donated to a selected group of people and transported to Sarajevo,
where most people from Foca have built houses, as having a cowardly
and destructive effect on return.

[Efendic] -- It is a fact that this was a poor selection and that the
donations were given on the basis of friendships and family relations.
[Passage omitted] Some houses are reconstructed, while no one ever
has seen smoke rising from their chimneys. [Passage omitted] There
were no sanctions against people who won the donations, reconstructed
their houses and sold them, or against those who put them on the list
for donations.

[Bajrovic] -- I must mention the illegal construction in Sarajevo.
We have problems identifying our users because we cannot check who
already has a house and who does not. [Passage omitted]

[Reporter] -- Mr Muradif Cengic thinks that the image of Bosniaks
from Foca has deteriorated greatly and that those responsible for that
are in Sarajevo. [Passage omitted] Due to the overall policy of support
for the Drina valley [in Foca] from Sarajevo, it is now a bitter fact
that only 19 elderly Bosniak citizens live in Foca, while there is
an extremely small number of Bosniaks in other places of return as well.
It is therefore sad that imam Asim Karovic was mercilessly attacked by
the SDA policy and some circles of people from Foca living in Sarajevo
when he spoke about these depressing facts to the media. They said that he
[Karovic] had allegedly presented false information about return to Foca
out of hostile sentiments.

[Lutvo Sukalo, Speaker of Foca municipal assembly] -- He told a
notorious lie when he claimed that 3,000 Bosniaks did not return to Foca,
but a lot less than 1,000.

[Efendic] -- I say the same thing the efendi [Karovic] said, and that is
that there are no more than 1,000 returnees here. I will personally feed
every returnee over 1,000.

[Bajrovic] -- I think that the number of 3,000 is unrealistic and false.
[Passage omitted]

[Reporter] -- How many Bosniak pupils do you have in Foca?

[Sukalo] -- None.

[Reporter] -- Isn't that a depressing piece of information?

[Sukalo] -- It is.

[Reporter] -- How many are there in Jelec?

[Sukalo] -- None there either. [Passage omitted]

[Reporter] -- What did Bosniak politicians in Foca do to remove the
public toilet from the foundations of the Sehova mosque [in Foca, razed
by Serbs during the war], which is a specific object for many reasons?

[Sukalo] -- [Passage omitted] We have not done anything about that
in the assembly. [Passage omitted]

[Reporter] -- Mr Muradif Cengic finally says that the aggressors
and criminals ethnically cleansed Foca, while the Bosniak political
representatives and the Foca intelligentsia have helped them preserve
that situation. He, however, hopes that at least history will mark
that a people called the Bosniaks once lived in Foca. [Passage omitted]

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