Show description

Nationalism in the ethnically mixed communities is an extreme political doctrine. As developments in some other parts of the Federation, primarily in Serbia, caused by the establishment of institutional nationalism produced a strong leader in Milosevic, the Bosnian leadership, newly in power and lacking in proper experience and charisma, certainly became less attractive for rural Serbs. Faced with economic problems, disappointed with previous Bosnian leaders who fell from power in disgrace, and with Milosevic’s (unrealistic) promises in view, they opted to support his ideas and ethnically homogenize.

This shows the regime did not see danger in individual ethno-national expression but in organized groups; even ethnic cultural programmes were seen as dangerous. Meanwhile, all the leaders, while maintaining their own ethnic identity, created a Bosnian political identity at this level by representing all three ethnic groups, regardless of their own ethnicity. This system worked, with its occasional repression of attempted ethnic organizing, and the lack of nationalist 36 BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: THE END OF A LEGACY incidents attracted popular approval.

The communist leadership, made up of proven partisan fighters and commanders during the Second World War, committed itself to the assumptions of wartime. This meant a communist ideology that overrode all rules and laws, although most of them were based on this ideology. The state apparatus was made very strong while post-war reconstruction was carried out according to the political environment, in which the mistakes and the ethnic segregation, of political parties in the previous regime were carefully avoided.