Identity and Conflict in Globalizing Times: Experiencing the Global in Areas Ravaged by conflict and the Case of the Bosnian Serbs

Abstract

These are reminders, of the debates, emotions and awareness that the Bosnian conflict attracted. This chapter analyses Bosnian Serb identities and argues that there has not yet been a full examination of the influence of the ‘global constituency’, created as a result of the Yugoslav war, on the identities of the warring parties in Bosnia. The materials used in this chapter include interviews and informal discussions with Serbs from Sarajevo and other localities which were gathered during a field trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina (hereafter Bosnia) in spring 1999. The research was carried out in a small town in eastern Bosnia, close to Sarajevo, belonging to the Serbian Republic of Bosnia (hereafter Republika Srpska). The town’s population has grown four- or five-fold since the war. ft has been a popular temporary or final destination for Serb refugees from Sarajevo in two different waves — one during the first days of the war and the other after the Dayton Agreement which allocated some of the Serb-controlled parts of Sarajevo to the Muslim-Croat Federation. The town, unlike other areas in eastern Bosnia, did not experience the violent ethnic cleansing of Muslims and had minimal experience of frontline warfare.

Bosnian Serbs are at the moment perhaps the most hated group of people in the Western world. (BBC documentary Serbian Ethics, 1992)

Bosnia, Bosnia, Bosnia is now everywhere. It is an ongoing series in our newspapers, a sound-bite on our television sets … we can be there by going to a U2 concert, clicking on a computer screen, by dialling up Sarajevo OnLine or netscaping to the Bosnia HomePage.

(O’Tuathail, 1996: 171)

The Chapter reflects the situation at the time of writing.

I would like to express my gratitude to the American Ireland Fund and the Initiative on Conflict Resolution and Fthnicity (INCORE) for awarding me the 1998–99 Tip O’Neill Fellowship in Peace Studies that funded a six-month period of research at INCORE (Northern Ireland) and a field trip to Bosnia. Thanks also go to Mervyn Frost, Manos Marangudakis, Roger McGinty, Michelle Pace, Catherine Danks, Paul Kennedy and the participants in the panel. ‘Globalizing influences and the implications for regions in turmoil’ for their comments on earlier drafts of this chapter. Naturally, 1 remain solely responsible for any mistakes.