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OPINION | Europe’s Far Right Joins Russia and China Backing Bosnia’s Serb Secessionists

From Orban to Le Pen, Europe’s nativist, anti-Muslim far right is affirming its grim alliance with Bosnia’s belligerent Serb nationalists, joining endorsements from Russia and China

Milorad Dodik, the Bosnian Serb member of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s tripartite presidency, has cultivated increasingly close ties to Europe's far right nativist politicians [AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic]

In early April 1992, my dad grabbed a duffle bag and packed up his and my mother's university diplomas, along with their personal documents and family photo albums. Based on the stories of our family’s experience during the Second World War, my father knew that personal documents and family photos were the most important things to keep safe during times of uncertainty. Just in case.


On March 1 of that year, the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina had voted for independence from Yugoslavia. At the time, I was four years old. My parents and I were living in an apartment in the neighborhood of Dobrinja which was built during the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.


Back then, Dobrinja had been an idyllic neighborhood. A place where young couples from different ethnic backgrounds lived side-by-side and raised their children, Dobrinja was a perfect example of peaceful coexistence in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslav.


The atmosphere in the neighborhood began to change, however, in the 1980s, when Slobodan Miloševic, the leader of the Yugoslav regime, and his Bosnian Serb mouthpiece, Radovan Karadzic, decided to carve up Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the expense of tens of thousands of Bosniak Muslim and Bosnian Croat lives.


Our neighborhood was located near the airport and was of strategic importance for the Yugoslav Army, which had turned into a mighty Serbian military force almost overnight. Led by Karadzic, who has since been convicted of genocide, armed militias of the Nationalist Serb Democratic Party set up barricades all over the city—one of which was located on the main road from Dobrinja to the city center.

A Bosnian woman walks next to a makeshift barricade made of mortar and bullet damaged buses and cars to protect against Serb snipers in the frontline neighborhood of Dobrinja in Sarajevo [AP Photo/Jacqueline Arzt]

People began to fear one another and to mostly keep indoors. Soon, my parents realized that the majority of our Serb neighbors had left. They had relocated their families to villages in the countryside or to Serbia, saying that they were going to visit a sick grandmother or for holiday. Only one of my mother’s colleagues warned her to stock up on food for her three small children. "Things could get messy," he said.


And they did.


Thirty years later, Milorad Dodik, the Bosnian Serb member of the country’s tripartite presidency, is calling for the secession of the country’s Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska.


Over the last decade, Dodik has become widely known for his anti-Bosniak rhetoric, genocide denial, and political posturing. Backed by Serbia and with support from the Russian Federation, Dodik has been able to position himself as a key destabilizer in the region. In addition, he has cultivated increasingly close ties to far-right nativist leaders in Europe.


In recent months, Dodik’s threatening and hateful rhetoric have intensified, resulting in the worst political crisis in the country since of the end of the war.


He has recently announced that the Bosnian Serbs will withdraw from state institutions and rebuild the Bosnian Serb Army— the military force responsible for the siege of Sarajevo and the genocide in Srebrenica, as well as mass graves, detention centers, and rape camps that characterized the Bosnian War.

Muslim and Croatian prisoners in the Manjaca detention camp run by Bosnian Serbs near Banja Luka during the war: Thousands of prisoners faced daily beatings and malnutrition [AP Photo/Kurt Sauter]

With these threats, Dodik has crossed a red line. Such actions could quickly ignite conflict in the entire region, endangering the peace and stability that has been painstakingly built over the last 30 years.


High Representative Christian Schmidt, the international community’s top diplomat in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has warned that the country is facing the worst "existential threat of the post-war period." He has called upon the international community to rein in the recent Bosnian Serb separatist threats.


His report, which was meant to be read out in front of the UN Security Council, was removed from the agenda under Russian pressure.

10,000 Bosnian Serbs in Banja Luka protest the arrest of Gen. Ratko Mladic, later convicted for war crimes, with Bosnian Serb Army wartime flag and portraits of Russian president Vladimir Putin [AP Photo/Amel Emric]

With the European Union more divided and incapacitated than ever, and United States preoccupied with China, Bosnia and Herzegovina is once again relegated to the periphery. Recently another far-right nativist leader, Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, started mingling in the crisis. Orban announced that Hungary will block any moves by the EU to sanction Dodik and stated that Hungary will provide €100 million in aid to the Bosnian Serb entity.


The reason for this? The answer lies in a speech by Orban in Budapest, tweeted out by his spokesman Zoltán Kovác. When asked about Bosnia, Orban replied: "The challenge with Bosnia is how to integrate a country with 2 million Muslims."


Unsurprisingly, Dodik has longstanding ties with other far right European politicians known for their hostility towards Muslims, from Austria’s Freedom Party to France’s Marine Le Pen.

Serb nationalists, this week: "It's Christmas...shoot into the mosques"


Several of Le Pen's party representatives are atte