Calls for communist-era unity revive in Bosnia

["viveka" <kaliyuga@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/bg/Qbosnia-wwii-anniversary.Rmmd_ClA.html

Calls for communist-era unity revive at WWII battle
anniversary in Bosnia
Story from AFP / Tanja Subotic


MRAKOVICA, Bosnia-Hercegovina, July 10 (AFP) - A
ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of a World War
II battle in which partisans broke the Nazi
stranglehold here turned into the biggest multi-ethnic
gathering in the Serb-run entity after Bosnia's
1992-95 war with nostalgic invoking of the old
communist slogan of brotherhood and unity.

Several thousand people, among them hundreds of
Bosnian Muslims and Croats from the Muslim-Croat
Federation that together with Republika Srpska makes
up post-war Bosnia, attended the ceremony held at
Mrakovica memorial center on the northwestern Kozara
mountain, symbol of anti-fascist resistance.

"This is the first time in ten years that I have come
here to pay tribute. Me and my partisan comrades and
supporters arrived from Sarajevo," Salko Rizvic, a
73-year-old Bosnian Muslim, told AFP while holding a
large photo of former Yugoslav communist leader Josip
Broz Tito.

Salko, who was only 14 when he joined the
communist-led partisan forces, said he was
disappointed that young generations in Bosnia today
have no regard for communist-era widely proclaimed
brotherhood and unity among peoples of the former
Yugoslavia, living instead divided along ethnic lines.

"For 48 years we were living and building together
side by side without asking who is Serb, who is Muslim
and who is Croat. It is sad that today youngsters,
when they complete school, celebrate their diploma in
separated ethnic groups, although they have been in
the same class together," he said.

As people standing around Salko started to applaud
him, a woman approached and through tears said: "I
heard your words. May I shake your hand?"

60-year-old Slobodanka Grubalj, who came from the
western town of Drvar in the Muslim-Croat Federation,
is a sister of the first partisan hero-woman Marija
Bursac killed during World War II.

"We used to live so nicely together, communities not
mattering. But unfortunately we have witnessed what we
thought was impossible, that our children fight each
other on community basis," Slobodanka said.

"I hope that brotherhood and unity will be revived one
day, because if it does that will mean that the blood
of my sister and other partisans was not shed in
vain," she added.

On July 10, 1942 some 40,000 German and Croatian
Nazi-allied Ustasha forces launched an offensive on
the partisan-held region around the Kozara mountain
massif encircling some 3,500 partisans and 80,000
civilians.

In the battle that lasted 50 days partisans managed to
break through the enemy circle evacuating 20,000
civilians while others were captured.

Ever since the former Yugoslavia broke-up in 1990s
wars, as republics were declaring independence,
symbols of the communist era here started to disappear
from public places.

For 67-year-old Ilija Radeljic, bringing the former
Yugoslav communist flag with the red star to Mrakovica
was a risk, as many people still find it repulsive to
see communists' insignia.

"I brought this flag, for it is a symbol of peace and
freedom. I took the risk to show up with it," Ilija
said.

The anniversary at the Kozara mountain did not pass
without what was Tito's and communists' biggest pride
-- pioneers -- children who had to give an oath at the
age of seven that they would follow up communist
principles.

This year's pioneer at the Kozara event, wearing a red
shirt and blue partisan hat with the red star, was
once again favourite of aging partisans who were
kissing him, despite the fact that their "pioneer" is
35 years old now.

"I kept this hat from my childhood, and I will keep it
for ever," Vitomir Milakovic, Tito's pioneer from
Banja Luka, said.

"I'm a communist ... I shall never give away the
five-pointed red star. I wear it on my hat, and have
it in my heart," Vitomir said.






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