Radna grupa za Bosnu i Hercegovinu se oformila kada su se entuzijasti i volonteri iz bosansko-američke zajednice okupili sa dugogodišnjim prijateljima BiH iz SAD-a i svijeta. Obavezali su se da će se zalagati za slobodnu, ujedinjenu i demokratsku BiH u kojoj vladavina prava garantuje pravdu, dostojanstvo, ljudska prava i jednakost za sve građane i građanke. Često se u bosanskohercegovačkim medijima spomene pismo koje visokim zvaničnicima u SAD-u, EU ili BiH šalju članovi Radne grupe. Izvještava se o protestima koje Radna grupa organizuje u gradovima širom svijeta ili se izdaju saopštenja za javnost o predavanjima članova Radne grupe na BiH ili američkim obrazovnim institucijama. Da saznam više o grupi, razgovarala sam sa njenim koordinatorom, Patrickom McCarthyjem.
Počeci Radne grupe
Patrick McCarthy: Prva poruka koju sam poslao učesnicima Radne grupe za BiH bila je u oktobru 2020. godine, prije američkih predsjedničkih izbora. U to vrijeme, postojao je snažan interes u bosanskoj zajednici ovdje u St. Louisu za isticanje angažmana tadašnjeg kandidata Bidena u BiH tokom godina. Otprilike tada počeli su se ponovo pojavljivati stari video snimci o tome koliko je jasno Biden govorio o prirodi rata koji je genocidan i o pravu Bosanaca da se brane. Njegov stav je bio protiv embarga na oružje koji je nametnut Bosni tokom rata. Ovdje u St. Louisu, mislili smo da bi, u iščekivanju predsjedništva Bidena, mogla postojati prilika da se osnaži američka vanjska politika prema Bosni i Hercegovini.
Ranije sam radio sa bosanskohercegovačkom zajednicom u St. Louisu, ali u određenoj i po drugim krajevima SAD-a, na različitim inicijativama, kao što je inicijativa za registraciju birača Prvi mart. U početku našeg rada smo mislili da ćemo imati jednu grupu koju čine istaknuti članovi bh. dijaspore u Sjedinjenim Državama, poput dr. Kenana Arnautović, neurohirurga iz Memphisa i Đenite Pašić, sa istaknutim liderstvom unutar bosansko-američke zajednice, Amira Ovčine, advokata iz Čikaga, zajedno sa nekim dugogodišnjim američkim prijateljima Bosne i Hercegovine, poput dr. Davida Pettigrewa, kongresmena Russa Carnahana, i mene. Svi mi imamo duboke i dugogodišnje veze i iskustva sa Bosnom i Herzegovinom.
Vizija za budućnost BiH
Patrick McCarthy: Mislim da mi, kojima je već dugi niz godina duboko stalo do države Bosne i Hercegovine i do njenog naroda, imamo viziju njene budućnosti kao mjesta koje je u miru sa samim sobom u smislu svojih struktura upravljanje; da ne postoje inherentne podjele ugrađene u proces i da ljudi bez obzira na porijeklo mogu u potpunosti učestvovati u političkom životu Bosne i Hercegovine.
Bosnu i Hercegovinu vidimo kao zemlju za sve, za ljude svakog porijekla, zemlju koja poštuje svoju historiju i tradiciju kao multietničko društvo. Sjećam se kada sam prvi put pozvao Kemala Kurspahića da dođe u St. Louis 1996. godine na jedno predavanje, koje sam naslovio „Budućnost multietničke Bosne.“ Kemal mi je tom prilikom rekao: „Patrick, želim da te ispravim, jer nema Bosne i Hercegovine koja nije multietnička. Naziv ovog predavanja ima jedan suvišan dio.” Ja se u potpuno slažem sa Kemalom, samo što imamo potrebu da to istaknemo zbog rata. Kemal Kurspahić, čovjek koji nam svima beskrajno mnogo nedostaje, mi je pomogao da shvatim da etničke podjele u BiH nisu uzrok rata, već njegova posljedica. Smatram da je to zaista važna razlika, koja je fundamentalno pogrešno shvaćena u političkim krugovima, a svakako je to tako kada govorimo o politici SAD-a prema Bosni i Hercegovini.
Uvijek sam mislio da bosanskohercegovački koncept multietničkog življenja predstavlja ideal. Kako društva širom svijeta sada etnički i kulturološki postaju sve raznovrsnija, imaju sve više za naučiti od BiH. Bosna je bila model u kome smo mogli tražiti odgovore na pitanja o tome kako ljudi mogu živjeti zajedno, ne samo tolerirati jedni druge, već imati međuzavisan i inkluzivan život. Kemalova porodica je to svakako odražavala. On je za mene bio neko ko je oličenje svega najboljeg iz Bosne i Hercegovine. Veoma je veliki gubitak to što više nemamo njegov glas i prisustvo. Uvijek je bio veliki džentlmen i tako promišljena osoba, predstavljao je veoma važan dio naše vizije.
Naša vizija za Bosnu i Hercegovinu se zasniva na poštovanju njene historije, poštenom sagledavanju događaja iz nedavne prošlosti, uključujući i rat, ne kako bi se BiH definisala tim događajima, već kako bismo ih bolje razumjeli. Naša vizija uključuje historijsko sučeljavanje sa onim što se dogodilo u periodu 1992-95, odgovornost za zločine koji su počinjeni u ratu, ali i stvaranje osnova za bh. društvo i vlast koji nisu trajno ukorijenjene u tim sukobima.
Tražimo konstruktivni mehanizam kako bismo se što direktnije bavili ovim pitanjima. Nismo htjeli da budemo lojalna opozicija koja samo beskrajno identifikuje i analizira probleme. To ponekad može biti tendencija u akademskoj sferi – da se radi analiza koja nije povezana sa akcijom. Koliko god naš naziv bio i pomalo nespretan, mi sebe nazivamo radnom grupom, jer upravo tako sebe vidimo – kao pripadnike bosanskohercegovačke dijaspore sa dugogodišnjim i dobro informisanim prijateljima Bosne I Hercegovina u SAD-u, koji zaista rade i direktno se angažuju.
Prioritetne oblasti angažovanja Radne grupe
Patrick McCarthy: Prilično rano smo uspostavili naše prioritetne oblasti, rekao bih u prvih nekoliko sedmica našeg rada a to su: članstvo BiH u NATO-u i pristupanje BiH Evropskoj Uniji. Dr. David Pettigrew i drugi htjeli su da kao prioritet odredimo okončanje poricanja genocida i nekažnjivosti ratnih zločina, kao i prestanak veličanja osuđenih ratnih zločinaca, pa smo uspostavili posebnu grupu koja radi na ovim pitanjima. Nešto kasnije smo shvatili da postoje neke strukturalne promjene, koje se moraju desiti, da bismo ostvarili naše glavne ciljeve, pa smo dodali grupu koja se bavi promjenama Ustava BiH i izbornim reformama. Počeli smo da poprimamo organizacioni oblik, jer sada imamo grupu, koju predvodi Phil Weiner, koja radi na uspostavi kontakata sa članova različitih vlada i grupu koja se bavi komunikacijom sa drugim pro-BIH grupama u SAD-u i drugim zemljama. Kako nastavljamo da radimo u različitim oblastima, tako se povećava broj ljudi koji nam se pridružuje. Kemal Kurspahić, koji je bio ratni urednik Oslobođenja, je bio među našim prvim članovima sa savjetničkom pozicijom.
Aktivnosti Radne grupe
Patrick McCarthy: Sastali smo se direktno s Visokim predstavnikom, Valentinom Inzkom. Pomogli smo u tome da ga ohrabrimo po pitanju nametanja zakonodavnog okvira kojim se zabranjuje poricanje genocida. Naša inicijativa je dobila veliku medijsku pažnju i o tome bi se moglo reći još mnogo toga. Trebalo je to učiniti ranije i možda nije bio najbolji trenutak da Inzko to uradi na kraju svog mandata. Donošenje ovog zakonskog rješenja je svakako bio izgovor Milorada Dodika za rasplamsavanje trenutne krize. Sastali smo se i sa Predsjedavajućim Predsjedništva BiH, Željkom Komšića, kao i sa drugim bh. zvaničnicima. U toku našeg početnog angažmana s Visokim predstavnikom od januara do avgusta 2021. godine, mobilizirali smo se da apelujemo kod Predsjednika Bidena za dostavu vakcina protiv Covida za BiH. David Pettigrew je napisao pismo u ime Radne grupe, o kome se također opširno izvještavalo u bh. medijima. Nakon tog pisma uslijedilo je pismo Visokom predstavniku Schmidtu o potrebi odbacivanja prijedloga HDZ-a za izbornu reformu. David Pettigrew je pripremio nacrt ovog pisma, sa velikim doprinosom ostalih članova naše grupe, a posebno Almire Delibegović-Broome, koja je predstavila ključne detalje o odlukama Evropskog suda za ljudska prava. I ova aktivnost je propraćena u medijima. U novembru prošle godine smo organizovali online konferenciju pod nazivom “Strateška vizija za Bosnu i Hercegovinu.” U decembru 2021. David Pettigrew je napisao otvoreno pismo predsjedniku Bidenu u ime Radne grupe o potrebi za odlučnom intervencijom u Bosni, jačanju EUFOR-a, NATO planiranju vanrednih situacija, odbijanju prijedloga HDZ-a i podržavanju odluka Visokog predstavnika. Ovo pismo je također propraćeno u bh. medijima. U januaru 2022. godine poslali smo pismo Josepu Borrellu, Visokom predstavniku EU za vanjske poslove i sigurnosnu politiku, o potrebi za sankcije EU-a i podršku zakonu protiv poricanja genocida, koje je Oliver Varhelyi, Povjerenik EU za susjedstvo i proširenje, kritikovao jer je okrivio Valentina Inzka, a ne Milorada Dodika za rasplamsavanje sadašnje krize u BiH.
Trudimo se da svoje napore usmjerimo ka ljudima koji donose odluke. Peter Lippman i drugi pomogli su da se u naš rade uvede više “grassroots aktivizma,” a neko ko se nama nedavno pridružio je rekao: “Vi ste bosanska intelektualna baza.” Meni se sviđa ovaj izraz, jer odražava mnogo raznolikosti talenata i vrsta obrazovanja ljudi koji su uključeni u našu Radnu grupu. Ali, mislim da jeste tako, to je pokušaj partnerstva sa onima koji su na pozicijama vlasti, ali i da se odrazi ono što mislim da je frustrirana volja građana Bosne i Hercegovine, kako građana koji trenutno žive u BiH, tako i onih koji su u bh. dijaspori, rasutoj po čitavom svijetu. Uvijek smo se trudili da poštujemo glas građana i građanki BiH i da tom glasu damo najveći značaj. Želimo sigurnu, prosperitetnu, demokratsku i slobodnu BiH. Zato smo dali prioritet članstvu u NATO-u. To je nešto od čega treba da počnemo, a zatim slijede evroatlantske integracije. I članstvo u NATO-u i u EU omogućit će Bosni i Hercegovini poziciju u zajednici evropskih naroda kao punopravnog partnera, u miru sa svojim susjedima, poštovanog od susjeda, sa snažno razvijenim odnosima od obostrane koristi u regionu.
Duboke i dugogodišnje veze sa BiH
Patrick McCarthy: Malo mi je teško da u nekoliko rečenica sumiram trideset godina angažmana u BiH i u bosanskoj zajednici u St. Louisu, ali sve je počelo 1992. godine. Tokom rata, ja i mnogi drugi američki prijatelji gledali smo dešavanja u Bosni i Hercegovini, kao i nedjelotvoran odgovor vlasti i Sjedinjenih Država I takozvane međunarodne zajednice, koji su bili u poziciji da intervenišu na neki način, da zaustave agresiju i napade na civile, koji su brzo postali ratni zločini i genocid. U St. Louisu je kontekst bio takav da su izbjeglice iz rata u BiH počele stizati u februaru 1993. Uglavnom su to bili ljudi koji su bili zatočeni u koncentracionim logorima u sjeverozapadnoj Bosni, iz mjesta poput Prijedora i Kozarac, logora Omarska, Manjača, Trnopolje i Keraterm. Bili su to ljudi koji nisu imali rodbinu drugdje u Sjedinjenim Državama, pa su došli u St. Louis. Otprilike u isto vrijeme slušao sam predavača na kampusu gdje radim na Univerzitetu St. Louis koji je bio upravo stigao iz opkoljenog Sarajeva i koji je govorio o tome kako se rat prikazuje u medijima i kako se mit o “vjekovnim etničkim neprijateljstvima” koristi kao izgovor od strane Sjedinjenih Država i drugih država da ne intervenišu, iako je nivo nasilja dostigao genocid. Dakle, došlo je do krize savjesti za ljude koji su, poput mene, odgajani u generaciji koja je rekla Nikad više!,nakon Drugog svjetskog rata. Zavjetovali smo se da nikada više nećemo pasivno sjediti, sigurno ne u Evropi, ako bi se to opet tamo dogodilo. Dakle, razgovarao sam sa novinarom koji je bio u BiH i pitao me šta možemo da radimo na mom univerzitetu? Spomenuo je i projekat pod nazivom Bosnian Student Project, koji je u SAD dovodio akademski kvalifikovane studente, koji su studirali u Bosni, ali čije je studiranje prekinuo rat. Pristao sam da organizujem taj projekat na svom univerzitetu. Otprilike u isto vrijeme pozvan sam da se pridružim grupi aktivista za ljudska prava i mir, koji su planirali otići u Sarajevo. Njihovo ranije putovanje je bilo 1993., a ja sam krenua na put sa njima 1994. godine.
Putovanje u opkoljeno Sarajevo i rad sa bh. izbjeglicama u St. Louisu
Patrick McCarthy: U avgustu i septembru 1994. godine pridružio sam se grupi koja je išla u Sarajevo. Putovali smo iz Hrvatske preko Hercegovine do periferije Sarajeva i to različitim vozilima. Nakon toga smo išli pješice kroz područje gdje se nalazio tunel, prokopan ispod aerodrome. Mi smo prolazili kroz tunel da uđemo u grad. Iskustvo je bilo vrlo dramatično i u potpunosti je odredilo moje razmišljanje o ratu i produbilo moj osjećaj ogromne nepravde koju je doživljavao narod u BiH. Kao što sam ranije spomenuo, St. Louis je postao mjesto za izbjeglice koje su dolaze iz rata, počevši sa prvih pet porodica u februaru 1993. godine, pa sve do toga da je svake sedmice stizalo blizu tridesetak Bosanaca u St. Louis. Zajednica je rasla. Počeo sam raditi sa bosanskohercegovačkom izbjegličkom zajednicom po različitim humanitarnim osnovama, skupljajući namještaj i pronalazeći stanove za njih. Uspio sam malo naučiti jezik, koji se u to vrijeme zvao srpsko-hrvatski, da bih mogao da komuniciram sa ljudima, kako bih im mogao pomoći u vezi njihovih osnovnih životnih potreba.
“Nakon pada Srebrenice – Preživjeli u St. Louisu”
Patrick McCarthy: Kroz moj bliski kontakt sa bh. zajednicom, osjetio sam da je važno zapisati njihovo kolektivno iskustvo. Zajedno sa prijateljem fotografom iz Čikaga objavio sam knjigu koja je zasnovana na nizu intervjua sa proširenom porodicom iz Srebrenice, koja se naselila u St. Louisu ili se većina njih preselila u St. Louis. Jedna porodica iz moje knjige, jedna žena sa svoje četvero djece odlučila je da se vrati u Bosnu. Izgubila je muža pri padu Srebrenice i onda smo se Tom i ja vratili s njom u Bosnu kako bi pratili njenu priču. Tu knjigu smo objavili 2000. godine i ona se zvala “Nakon pada Srebrenice – Preživjeli u St. Louisu”. Knjiga je bila popraćena i jednogodišnjom izložbom u Muzeju historije države Missouri. Sve skupa je to bio proces rada sa bh. dijasporskom zajednicom kako bi se utvrdilo koje dijelove priče treba ispričati. Nakon toga, radio sam još jednu izložbu o Prijedoru i onome što se dogodilo u Prijedoru. Zajedno sa Benom Mooreom i kolegama iz Bosnia Memory Project u St. Louisu bio sam na istraživačkom putovanju u Prijedor i okolici, kako bismo se pripremili za tu izložbu. Bosanska zajednica u St. Louisu postajala je sve veća, ali politička realnost u Bosni i Hercegovini, koja je odmah nakon rata bila obećavajuća, počela je da se pogoršava. Ja sam se postepeno počeo više fokusirati na šira pitanja o političkoj i društvenoj budućnosti Bosne i Hercegovine. Pridružio sam se Savjetodavnom vijeću za Bosnu i Hercegovinu i postao počasni član Bosansko-hercegovačke Američke akademije nauka i umjetnosti (BHAAAS). Upoznao sam Sašu Hemon u St. Louisu i postali smo prijatelji. Za vrijeme predsjedničkog mandata Saše Hemona, postao sam počasni član BHAAAS-a. Međutim, u svom radu uvijek sam želio dati prednost glasu i ulozi samih Bosanaca i Hercegovaca u aktivizmu za poboljšanje stvari u državi. Našu Radnu grupu čine ljudi sličnih, dugogodišnjih veza sa Bosnom i Hercegovinom i velikoj ljubavi prema njenim ljudima. Imamo stabilne profesionalne živote i stekli smo uticajne pozicije u SAD-u. Želimo da budemo od pomoći državi Bosni i Hercegovini.
Poznajući Bosnu i Hercegovinu kroz trodecenijski rad, bilo unutar države ili u njenoj dijaspori, Patrick McCarthy i drugi članovi Radne grupe naučili su o raznim bolestima koje muče institucije BiH, uključujući klijentelizam, mreže političkih pokroviteljstava i podobnosti, kao i druge oblike korupcije. Svjesni su političke složenosti i izgubili su svaki naivni idealizam koji su možda i imali ranih devedesetih, kada su započeli svoj angažman za Bosnu i Hercegovinu. Kada sam pitala kako nalaze inspiraciju za kontinuiran rad, odgovor je bio iznenađujuće jednostavan: cinizam je destruktivan.
Patrick McCarthy: Mislim da je cinizam jedna od onih vrlo neproduktivnih emocija. Na cinizmu ne možete ništa izgraditi. Uvijek sam birao nadu kao put da nešto uradim, a onda imam veliku satisfakciju kada pogledam rezultate tog rada. Znate, niko od mene nije tražio da radim ovaj posao. Nikad nisam bio plaćen da to radim. Uvek sam imao izbora. Sjećam se da sam na taj način razmišljao i dok sam bio u Bosni, za vrijeme rata. Sjećam se da sam u sebi mislio o tome kako ja mogu da odem iz BIH. Mislim, tokom rata sam bio u Bosni mnogo puta i svaki put sam imao izbor da se vratim iz ovog tunela i da se vratim u Hrvatsku i Sjedinjene Države. Ali ljudi u BiH nisu imali izbora. Sjećam se da sam razmišljao o tome šta bih ja želio da neko izvana uradi da sam u toj poziciji? Da sam se suočio s tom situacijom, želio bih da taj neko učini sve što može da pokuša popraviti situaciju. Ovo je za mene postalo ljudsko pitanje. Pitanje koje se samo postavilo ispred mene jeste pitanje obaveze koju kod drugih stvara nivo nasilja nad običnim ljudima do samog genocida? Odgovor na to pitanje je ono što pokreće moj rad do dan danas.
Patrick McCarthy je ekspert za bosansku imigraciju i historiju Bosne i Hercegovine. Radio je sa bosanskom zajednicom od 1993. godine, pružajući pomoć pri preseljenju izbjeglica koje su bile primorane napustiti svoju domovinu zbog rata i genocida u Bosni i Hercegovini ranih devedesetih. 1994. godine McCarthy je otputovao u ratnu Bosnu da dostavi humanitarnu pomoć i podršku. Iste godine je osnovao projekat bosanskih studenata (Bosnian Student Project) u St. Louisu, koji je pronalazio stipendije za bosanske student, izbjeglice na američkim fakultetima i univerzitetima. McCarthy je koautor, sa fotografom Tomom Madayom knjige After the Fall: Srebrenica Survivors in St. Louis (2000), knjige je pratila i jednogodišnja izložba u Historijskom muzeju Missouri. Takođe je koautor i generalni urednik časopisa Ethnic St. Louis (2015). Počasni član je Bosanskohercegovačko-američke akademije umjetnosti i nauka. McCarthy je bio saradnik putujuće izložbe Prijedor: Životi iz genocida u Bosni. Osnivač je i moderator Radne grupe za Bosnu i Hercegovinu, organizacije koja promovira sigurnost, demokratiju i vladavinu prava za BiH i njen narod. McCarthy je profesor i vanredni dekan biblioteka na Univerzitetu Saint Louis, gdje vodi Biblioteku Medicinskog centra.
The Working Group for Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Working Group for Bosnia and Herzegovina (WG4BiH) is what happens when a group of enthusiasts and volunteers from the Bosnian-American community get together with longstanding friends of BiH from the US and around the world and commit to advocating relentlessly for a free, united and democratic BiH under the rule of law with human rights, justice, dignity and equality for all citizens. Frequently, the BiH press covers a letter endorsed by members of the WG4BiH and addressed to high-level officials in the US, the EU or BiH. There is news coverage of protests organized by the WG4BiH in cities around the world or press releases on public lectures given by members of the group in BiH or US educational institutions. To learn more about the group, I talk to its Coordinator, Patrick McCarthy.
The beginnings of the Working Group
Patrick McCarthy: The first message I sent about the WGBiH was in October of 2020, before the US Presidential election. There was a strong interest in the Bosnian community here in St. Louis of highlighting, then candidate Biden’s involvement with Bosnia over the years. Around that time old videos started to resurface about how strongly he had spoken out about the nature of the war being genocidal and about the right of Bosnians to defend themselves. His stand was in opposition to the arms embargo that had been imposed on Bosnia during the war. Here in St. Louis, we thought that there might be an opportunity in anticipation of a Biden presidency to reinvigorate US policy related to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
I had been working with the Bosnian community locally and to some degree nationally on different efforts, such as the Prvi Mart voter registration initiative. Initially, we were thinking that we would have a leadership group comprising prominent members of the BiH diaspora in the United States, such as dr. Kenan Arnautović, who is a neurosurgeon in Memphis and Đenita Pašić, a long-time leader within the Bosnian American community, Amir Ovčina, a lawyer from Chicago, together with some long-standing American friends of Bosnia and Herzegovina, like Dr. David Pettigrew, Congressman Russ Carnahan, and myself. We were all people with deep ties with Bosnia and long-standing experience of the country.
Vision for the future of BiH
Patrick McCarthy: I think those of us who have cared a lot for a long time about Bosnia and Herzegovina and about the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina have a vision for its future as a place that is at peace with itself in terms of its structures of governance; that there aren’t inherent divisions built into the process and that people regardless of their background can participate fully in the political life of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
We see Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country for all, for people of any background, a country that honors its history and its traditions as a multi-ethnic society. I remember when I first invited Kemal Kurspahić to come to St. Louis in 1996. I had entitled the talks as “The future of multiethnic Bosnia,” and Kemal said, “Patrick, I want to make a correction. There, there is no Bosnia and Herzegovina that is not multiethnic. What you have is a redundant statement.” It’s only that we feel a need to highlight it because the war. He helped me understand that the ethnic divisions were not a cause of the war, but a consequence of the war. And I thought that was a really important distinction that was fundamentally misunderstood in outside policy circles, certainly in the US policy thinking about Bosnia and Herzegovina.
I always thought that the Bosnian concept of multiethnic living represented an ideal. As societies are now becoming more and more diverse, Bosnia was a model that we could look to for a model of how people could live together, not just tolerating each other, but having an interdependent life and having an inclusive life. Kemal’s own family, certainly reflected that. He was to me, someone who is the embodiment of the very best of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is just such a profound loss not to have him as that voice and the presence he was. He was always such a gentleman and such a thoughtful person, such a strong part of our vision. Our vision for Bosnia and Herzegovina includes respecting its history, looking honestly at the events of the recent past, including the war, not to be defined by those events, but to understand them, to have a reckoning historically with what had occurred to have accountability for the crimes that had occurred in the war of the early nineties to not have the structures of society and governance permanently entrenched in those conflicts.
We are looking for a constructive vehicle or mechanism in which to engage with these issues as directly, as we could. We didn’t want to be a loyal opposition that was just identifying problems endlessly and analyzing those problems. This can sometimes be the tendency in the academic sphere – to do analysis that is not linked to action. As clumsy as our title might be, we call ourselves a working group, because that is exactly how we see ourselves – as members of the Bosnian diaspora with longstanding and well-informed friends of Bosnia working and directly engaging, making strategic choices to engage with some of the political decision-makers.
Priority areas of engagement for the Working Group
Patrick McCarthy: We established pretty early on our areas of priority. I’d say within the first few weeks – one being NATO membership for BIH, the other being EU accession. Dr. David Pettigrew and others wanted us to prioritize ending genocide denial and the impunity of war crimes, as well as ending the glorification of convicted war criminals, so we set a separate group to work on these issues. A little later we realized some of the structural changes that needed to happen for us to accomplish our major objectives, so we added a group on constitutional reform and electoral changes. We began to take organizational shape as we now have a group, led by Phil Weiner, that will reach out to members of various governments and a group that’ll reach out to other pro BIH groups in the US and other places. And then we just organically grew as someone knew someone else. Kemal Kurspahić, who was the wartime editor of Oslobođenje, was an early member in an advisory role.
Activities of the Working Group
Patrick McCarthy: We met directly with the High Representative, Valentin Inzko. His record was, he would even admit, a very mixed record. We helped encourage him on the question about imposing a law, banning genocide denial. Our initiative received extensive media coverage and a lot more could be said about that. It should have been done sooner and maybe doing it as he was exiting the building wasn’t the best timing. It was certainly used as a pretext and excuse by Milorad Dodik to ignite the current crisis. We likewise met with the Chairman of the Bosnian Presidency, Željko Komšić and had a very good discussion with him and other Bosnian officials. Within the time frame of that initial engagement with the High Representative from about January to August 2021, we mobilized to appeal for Covid vaccines for Bosnia to President Biden. David Pettigrew wrote a letter on behalf of the Working Group, which was also extensively covered in the BiH media. That letter was followed by a letter to High Representative Schmidt about the need to reject the HDZ proposal for election reform. David Pettigrew prepared a draft of this letter and had extensive input from the group, especially from Almira Delibegović-Broome who provided crucial detail on the decisions of the ECHR. This activity was also covered in the media. In November we had an online conference entitled “A Strategic Vision for Bosnia and Herzegovina.” In December 2021, David Pettigrew wrote an open letter to President Biden on behalf of the Working Group about the need for decisive intervention in Bosnia, reinforcing EUFOR, NATO contingency planning, rejecting HDZ proposal and supporting decisions of the High Representative. This letter was also covered in the media. In January 2022, we sent a letter to Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, about the need for EU sanctions and support for the law against genocide denial, which Oliver Varhelyi, the EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement had criticized as he blamed Valentin Inzko rather than Milorad Dodik for igniting the most recent crisis.
We are trying to direct our efforts towards people who are making decisions. Peter Lippman and others have helped bring in more of a grassroots element, but someone who joined recently said: “You’re a Bosnian brain trust.” And I like that term because it reflects a lot of the diversity of talents and backgrounds of the people who are involved in our Working Group. But, I think it’s, it’s an attempt to partner with those who are in positions of authority, but also to reflect what I think is the frustrated will of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, both citizens who currently live in Bosnia and those who are in the worldwide diaspora. We’ve always tried to respect that voice and give primacy to that voice. We want a secure, prosperous, democratic, and free BiH. That is why we’ve given priority to NATO membership. That’s something you need to start with, followed by Euro Atlantic integration. Both membership in NATO and the EU will give Bosnia and Herzegovina the position in the community of European nations as a full partner at peace with its neighbors, respected by its neighbors with strong relationships of mutual benefit in the region.
Deep and longstanding connections with BiH
Patrick McCarthy: It’s a bit difficult for me to summarize thirty years of engagement with Bosnia and the Bosnian community in St. Louis, but it all started in 1992. During the war, I, and a lot of other American friends were looking at what was happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the ineffective governmental response either by the United States or the so-called community of nations that are in a position to intervene in some way to stop the aggression and the attacks on civilians that quickly became war crimes and genocide. In St. Louis, the context was such that we started to have a very small number of refugees arriving from the war in February of 1993. They were mainly people who were from the series of concentration camps in Northwest Bosnia, from places like Prijedor and Kozarac. They were from the camps of Omarska, Manjača, Trnopolje and Keraterm. They were people who didn’t have relatives elsewhere in the United States, so they came to St. Louis. Around that same time, I heard a speaker on campus where I work at St. Louis university who had just come from Sarajevo, who talked about how the war was being portrayed in the media and how the myth of age-old, ethnic animosities was being used as an excuse by the United States and other governments not to intervene, even though the level of violence had reached genocide. So, there was a crisis of conscience for people who, like myself, had been raised in a generation that said Never Again! Never Again would we passively sit by certainly not in Europe, if it were to occur there again. So, I talked to this journalist who was there and asked about what can we do at this university? And he mentioned an effort called the Bosnian student project, which brought academically qualified English-speaking students, who had been studying in Bosnia, but whose studies had been cut short by the war. I agreed to organize that effort at my university. Around the same time, I was invited to join a delegation of human rights, and peace activists who were planning to go to Sarajevo. Their earlier effort was in 1993 and I joined their group in 1994.
Travelling to besieged Sarajevo and work with BiH refugees in St. Louis
In August and September of 1994, I joined the group going to Sarajevo. We went from Croatia through Herzegovina to the outskirts of Sarajevo and by different vehicles. And then on foot through the area where there was a tunnel that was dug underneath the airport, and we went in and out of the tunnel to get into the city. The experience was very dramatic in terms of my own perspective on the war. It really only deepened my sense of the injustice of it. As I mentioned earlier, St. Louis had been identified as a site for refugees coming from the war that started with five families in February of 1993. And up to the point where we had almost 30 Bosnians coming per week to St. Louis. The community was growing. I started working with the Bosnian refugee community on a humanitarian basis, collecting furniture and finding apartments. I studied a little bit of what was then called Serbo-Croatian language so that I could communicate on a basic level with people for getting things like their utilities connected.
“After the Fall of Srebrenica – Survivors in St. Louis”
Patrick McCarthy: Through my close contact with the community, I felt it was important to document the experience. Together with a photographer friend from Chicago, I developed a book that was a series of interviews from an extended family from Srebrenica, who had resettled in St. Louis or most of them had resettled in St. Louis. One family, one woman with her four children who was part of that extended family decided to return to Bosnia. She had lost her husband in the fall of Srebrenica and then Tom and I went back with her to Bosnia. We published that book in 2000, which was called “After the fall of Srebrenica – Survivors in St. Louis.” And it was also a year-long exhibit at the Missouri History Museum. And that was a process of working with the community to identify which parts of the story to tell. After that, I worked on another exhibit about Prijedor and what happened in Prijedor. I made a research trip to Prijedor together with Ben Moore and colleagues from the Bosnian Memory Project in St. Louis.
We spent some time in and around Prijedor to prepare for that exhibit. The Bosnian community in St. Louis was getting larger, but the political realities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, which initially showed some promise after the war, started to deteriorate. And I shifted my focus a bit to these larger questions about the political and social future of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I joined the Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina and I was made an honorary member of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian American Academy of Arts and Sciences (BHAAAS). I had met Saša Hemon a couple of times in St. Louis and we have become friends. During Saša’s term of presidency, I became an honorary member of the BHAAAS. However, in all my work, I always wanting to prioritize the voice and the role of Bosnians themselves in the activism for making things better. Our group is composed of people with similar and long-standing connections with Bosnia and Herzegovina and just a love for its people. We have stable professional lives and have attained positions of influence. We want to be of help to the country.
In their three-decade long relationship with BiH, either domestically or in its diaspora, Patrick McCarthy and other members of the Working Group have learnt about the various diseases that plague BiH institutions, including clientelism, patronage networks and other forms of corruption. They are aware of the political complexities and they have lost any naive idealism they might have had in the early nineties, when they began their endeavor. When I asked how they sustain their efforts, the answer was surprisingly simple: cynicism is destructive.
Patrick McCarthy: I think cynicism is one of those very unproductive emotions to have. You can’t really build anything on cynicism. I’ve always chosen hope as the pathway to do something and then see what the results are. You know, nobody asked me to do this work. I never got paid to do it. I always had this choice, you know. I remember thinking that even when I was in Bosnia, during the war. I remember thinking to myself, I’m going to be able to leave. I mean, during the war, I’ve been to Bosnia many times and each time I had the choice to go back out of this tunnel and get back to Croatia and to the United States. But the people here didn’t have a choice. I remember thinking, what would I want somebody on the outside to do? If I was facing that situation, I would want them to do anything they could do to try to make the situation better. This became a human question for me. It became this question of what is your obligation when there is a level of violence against ordinary people to the level of genocide? Answering that question is what drives my work to this day.
Patrick McCarthy is a specialist on Bosnian immigration and the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has worked with the Bosnian community since 1993, providing resettlement assistance to refugees fleeing the war and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s. In 1994, McCarthy traveled to wartime Bosnia to deliver humanitarian aid and support. That same year he founded the St. Louis Bosnian Student Project, which located scholarships for Bosnian refugee students at area colleges and universities. McCarthy is co-author with photographer Tom Maday of After the Fall: Srebrenica Survivors in St. Louis (2000), a companion volume to a yearlong exhibit at the Missouri History Museum. He is also co-author and general editor of Ethnic St. Louis (2015). An honorary member of the Bosnian Herzegovinian American Academy of Arts and Sciences, McCarthy was a contributor to the traveling exhibit Prijedor: Lives from the Bosnian Genocide. He is the founder and facilitator of the Working Group for Bosnia and Herzegovina, an advocacy organization that promotes security, democracy, and rule of law for Bosnia and Herzegovina and its people. McCarthy is a professor and associate dean of libraries at Saint Louis University, where he directs the Medical Center Library.