A Peek Into History of Bosnia Municipal Elections

Since 2008, municipal elections had not been held in Bosnia as the SDA and HDZ parties could not agree on electoral rules. However, both the parties had drafted the budget together, although transparency lacked as citizens were unaware were the money was spent. In the present scenario, the citizens argue that elites have had abused power as they had been living on the money of the taxpayer and shied away from showing any responsibility towards them. The unemployment rate in addition had accelerated during this period. The establishment of a city council signifies hope in Bosnia. Multi-ethnic parties are expected to win councillor which is believed to be a positive sign, although the two-party nationalist majority had been the trend. Bosnian city has been the witness to the ethnical division between the Bosnian Muslims and the Serbs. In the collective memory of the Bosniaks, the horror of the genocide remains etched.

ETHNICITY AND RELIGION: CAUSES OF THE GENOCIDE IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINIA

Bosnia-Herzegovina formed a part of the Republic of Yugoslavia. Croatia and Slovenia declared independence which thereafter saw military retaliation by the Republic itself. The violence that erupted in Yougolsovia in 1991 must be perceived as the first major conflict that occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, during this period there was no British intervention because it was argued that this was merely an internal dispute. It had been led by Milosevic, the President of the Republic of Serbia who had been invigorating violent uprisings of Serbian nationalist parties and envisioned an ethnically Serb-dominated state which was hailed by Dobrica Cosic, the most popular writer in Serbia. It was him who espoused that Slavs were the most superior of all the Balkans.

The Croats and Bosniaks, constituting 60 per cent of the population voted for secession which had been opposed by the Ethnic Serbs that led to violence. Gunmen had been deployed to instigate fear in the minds of the minorities. Thereafter, the necessity of cleansing this population began by the ethnic Serbs, first of which began by detaining the Bosniak or the Bosnian Muslims. Then there were deported by a train to Hungary. Many have become refugees, 40,000 of them been Muslims and it has been argued that the Local Red Cross was complicit in this genocide. Not only that, the Serbia militia forces had been supported by the then President (Gutman, Roy, 1993) Yet, it cannot be denied that the United Nations was established by then and could not prevent the Serbenican genocide. It has been argued that the soldiers of the United Nations Peacekeeping forces were complicit in this.

THE DAYTON AGREEMENT AND AN ANALYSIS OF ITS SUCCESS

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia-Herzegovinia known by the name of Dayton Agreement of Peace ended the long-drawn conflict. An agreement was officially reached in 1995 at Wright Petterson Air Force. The Agreement epitomized the triumph of diplomacy by the Western Powers. Annex 1A which is concerned with the deployment of the Implementation Force, whereas Annex 1B outlines regional stabilization, security measures and as well as principles regarding regional arms and ammunition. Although it was against the wishes of the Serb and Croatian ultra-nationalists, Bosnia had been announced as a unified state which allowed those displaced to return to their homes.

The Federation was established as well as the Republic of Srpska or Republic of Serbia was recognized as a political entity which was awarded rights to self-govern itself. The media has indeed portrayed the Serbs as the criminals of the genocide and the Commemoration Day only deepens this memory which is of despair. (Murphy, 2011) Nevertheless, Serbian leadership undermines the legitimacy of the Dayton Agreement. The US involvement has been heralded because of their might to end war-torn Bosnia. In addition to that, the Clinton administration wanted to ensure the signing of this agreement as he would be running for re-election campaign against Robert Dole.

Now Bosnia has three separate armies, police forces and a national government whose functioning can be clearly argued is only on paper. Power remains still in the hands of its nationalists who aim to prohibit refugees returning to their homes. However, it can be argued that the Dayton Agreement has succeeded only in the prevention of armed conflict after it had been signed. In addition, SFOR or the NATO-led force in failing in the execution of the agreement.

CONCLUSION

The Municipal elections must be perceived as an indication of improvement in Bosnia as there will be the establishment of the City Council. It may lead to reconciliation as its leaders have forgone issues of ethnicity and ready to propound issues of employment and the economy. Nevertheless, it remains a necessity that the United Nations must play an active role in ensuring that the holding of the elections are not disrupted and can return to normalcy.

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The Chittagong Hill Tract: Acts Implemented by the British Empire

However, it must be remembered that the British Empire bore the colonized with the fruits of colonial forestry that altered India’s ecology. Nonetheless, it must be mentioned how the onus of responsibility has been placed on the Raj for deforestation. The dense forests of the Chittagong Hill Tracts were perceived to be a source of revenue for the British and declared it to be Government property under the guise of protection (Golam, 2005, p: 7-10). The practice of kumri was now denounced under the British Raj which had been known as shifting cultivation where trees had been burned and seeds were then sowed in the ashes, performing as a fertilizer (Rajan, 2006, p:1-112 ). It was argued that it had resulted in deforestation and soil depletion. The shifting cultivators had been engaged in competition with the colonial state for forest resources. This could be perceived as the beginning of intolerance against the indigenous consumer of the forests, as hunting for livelihood was now criminalized. However, the commoditization of forests was detrimental for the British Empire to pronounce its dominance. The Act XXII of 1860 brought the Chittagong Hill Tracts under the jurisdiction of the British Superintendent and was made a subdivision in the Bengal Region (Barua, 1971, p: 514-518). The Chittagong Hill Tract Regulation Act of 1900 put forth the trajectory of separation by reaffirming restrictions on immigration. By this law, it was the Deputy Commissioner under whom jhum cultivation could be regulated. The Government of India Act, 1935 designated the Chittagong Hill Tracts as a “Totally Excluded Area”.

It was in 1947 that the establishment of two nation states: India and Pakistan were established as sovereign. It was Cyril Radcliffe, the Head of the Bengal Boundary Commission who suggested the inclusion of CHT in Pakistan (Ashrafuzzaman, 2014, p: 39-53 ). The Chittagong Hill Tracts was incorporated by the Pakistan who she had directly governance over. By the constitution of Pakistan, proclaimed under the Dictatorship of Ayub Khan in 1962, the CHT was declared as a ”tribal area”. It was believed that the Kaptai Dam was to be established across the Karnaphulli river during 1959- 1963 which was a hydroelectric project and the stepping stone for industrialization. This led to the displacement of over 100,000 indigenous people and many were compelled to resettle in India. As a result of continuous economic exploitation, resistance was the only solution for East Pakistan.

The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971: Government Sponsored Violence in the Chittagong Hill Tracts

It was in 1971 that Pakistan withdrew, although the Liberation War brought to the fore violence by both East and West Pakistan. The Bengali freedom fighters declared the tribespeople as supporters of Pakistan and were tortured. However, it cannot be forgotten that the Bangladesh Liberation War was fought in 1971 by the indigenous communities who were a minority as well as by the majority population constituted by Bengali Muslims against West Pakistan, the former believing the claim that their rights would be restored to them after independence. The Bangladesh Liberation War must be analyzed as an imposition of the Urdu language in Bangladesh with a pursuit for Muslim rule (Wolfgang, 1984, p: 1-126).

In 1972, Manobendra Narayan Larma, the only representative in parliament of CHT led a delegation and placed demands to the Prime Minister, Majibur Rahman such as the establishment of a Legislative Assembly in the CHT, restricting the movement of outsiders in this region and lastly the continuation of the designation of Tribal Chief Offices which was outrightly rejected. A new political party was born known as Parboti Chottogram Janasanghati Samati or PCSS, coupled with its armed wing known as Santi Bahini. The indigenous communities were collectively termed as Jumma (Islam, 2003, p: 137-160). However, no special status was awarded to CHT by Bangladesh after it gained independence and its population was accorded the citizenship of Bengali which denied the separate identity that its indigenous community had. The Constitution of Bangladesh in 1988 declared Islam as the state religion, the victims of religious persecution has been the Jummas and the Hindus. Temples had been destroyed of both Hindus and the Jummas alike. There has been an influx of Bengali Muslim settlers with the support provided by the Bangladeshi Army which has resulted in the significant reduction of the Jumma population. The International Labor Organization has brought to the forefront the annihilation of the indigenous people.  

The Peace Accords: A Failure

It was in 1997 that the Peace Accords were signed between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the PCSS. The Accord stated that the Bangladesh Government would withdraw its troops from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, although human rights violations have continued to occur even after the treaty had been signed. Rabi Shankar Chakma, the Central General Secretary, in an exclusive interview with Hill Women’s Federation has commented on how CHT has still been under military occupation by the government. The Army’s influence plays a vital role in the failure of the implementation of the Peace Accords. Adding to that, the Bangladeshi National Party has espoused an attitude that can be termed as uncooperative. It violated the terms of the treaty by not appointing a minister belonging from the indigenous members of the parliament. Detentions of the Jumma have accentuated. Massacres have been occurring since 1976 and women have been victims of sexual violence as rape has been utilized as a tool. Not only that, but looting has also occurs predominantly. Many such incidents can be cited to propound the role of an authoritarian government that has repressed the voices of the Jummas. Hill’s Women Federation which represents the rights of Pahari Women in the Chittagong Hill Tracts has reported the rate of rapes at 67% during 2011- 2012.

Therefore, it is important to point out that the Chittagong Hill Tracts is such a region that has been fraught by communalism which has been fueled by discrimination of the Government of Bangladesh, and their perception of the Jumma community. While this same government has spoken out for the displacement of the Rohingya Muslims, it has remained silent on the terrors it has engaged in. 

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Modern Genocide

Since the summer of 2017, we have been hearing frequently from the world media and human rights organisations, appalling reports of ginormous internment of people. Most of them who have been arbitrarily detained are Uyghur (a primarily Turkic-speaking Muslim minority ethnic group), Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang). According to the latest Chinese census, the population of Uyghurs is about 12 million. However, sources indicate that their population is undercounted by the Chinese authorities.

Since 2017, eight hundred thousand to two million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities have vanished into an extensive network of “re-education camps”. Forcing the detainees to repudiate Islam and espouse the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seems to be the ultimate goal for the government. Former detainees reported mandatory classes where they were required to recite Communist slogans and praise the CCP. Some reported the rampant presence of cameras and microphones without any blind spots monitoring their every move. Women have shared stories of sexual abuse, forced abortions and having contraceptive devices implanted against their will.

Initially, China denied the existence of such camps. But once evidence started to mount with pictures, videos and testimonies, they changed their narrative and asserted that these internment camps were “vocational education centers” designed to help young, unemployed people in Xinjiang to learn job skills and the Chinese language, concealing the fact that the middle-aged population is almost wiped out in southern Xinjiang. Till date, China doesn’t accept that any human rights violation is taking place. It holds that the purpose of the camps is to get rid of the environment that breeds terrorism and religious extremism.

Outside of the camps, Uyghurs have continued to suffer from a long clampdown by Chinese authorities. Surveillance is intrusive and ubiquitous making it one of the most heavily surveilled police state in the world. Muslims are being forced to accept Communist Party officials in their homes, effectively extending state surveillance everywhere. 1.1 million local government officials have been stationed to spend about a week every two months living in the home of a Uyghur host family. It is referred to as the “Pair Up and Become Family” campaign. Additionally, each square has a police station that closely monitors the locals through regularly scanning their ID cards and searching their mobile phones.

Fleeing out of China is not enough to escape the rule of CCP. In 2017, Uyghurs worldwide reported being contacted by Chinese police and were ordered to return home. Those who obeyed often disappeared and those who did not, received calls from family members begging them to repatriate for the fear of detention. It also coerced many countries into returning Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minority groups to China. In 2015, Thailand returned nearly 100 Uyghurs. In July 2017, Egyptian authorities deported two dozen Uyghurs, who instantaneously disappeared on arrival in China. In some cases, like Malaysia, foreign governments resisted Chinese pressure, often through the support of the United States and refused to return Uyghur individuals.

The Organ Scandal

China announced that it had performed the first double transplant on a 59-year-old after her lungs failed due to coronavirus. The fact that the patient had to wait for merely five days for a donor to provide a perfectly matching set of lungs while the world’s waiting time for a single lung could be months and even years, raises doubts about the legitimacy of the organ harvesting program. These suspicions are being raised because China has a voluntary donor rate of only 0.6 per one million citizens. Of the 1.5 million Chinese citizens who are in need of an organ transplant donor each year, only 10,000 receive a successful match, according to the Journal of Biomedical Research.

The Final Judgement of Independent Tribunal Into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China given on 1^st March 2020 declares, “Forced organ harvesting has happened in multiple places in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and on multiple occasions for a period of at least 20 years and continues to this day,”. The judgment further states that, “Falun Gong practitioners in detention were systematically subjected to blood tests and organ examinations. Dr Trey, an (expert) witness raises the question ‘Why would detained Falun Gong practitioners receive specific physical examinations (including X-Ray, ultrasound and blood tests) while at the same time being subjected to brainwashing, labour work, torture or torture death?’ He postulates that the only rational explanation is to build up a systematic medical databank of potential living organ donors.” On the basis of all the evidence on the subject, the Tribunal concluded that the medical testing of Falun Gongs and Uyghurs was related in some way to the group concerned because other prisoners were not tested. No explanation has been given by the PRC for these testings yet.

Both the Red Cross Society of China and Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting also cast doubts in this regard as there had been a sudden increase of more than 25,000 organ donors on a single day in December 2015 and 88,300 registered organ donors within a six-day period in December 2016, a number that can only be explained by a large-scale, forced organ harvesting programme. Ethan Gutmann, a human rights investigator, testified to the China Tribunal that “over the last 18 months, literally every Uyghur man, woman, and child – about 15 million people – have been blood and DNA tested, and that blood testing is compatible with tissue matching”.

The Proponents and Opponents

China’s critics are mainly in the western world and also include major democracies like Australia and Japan. All 27 are considered either full or flawed democracies according to the Democratic Index 2019 given by The Economist Intelligence Unit. China is backed by a conglomeration of authoritarian and hybrid countries, including many of the world’s most brutal dictatorships namely North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

Unexpectedly, most of the signatories of the letter defending China’s new policy happened to be Muslim-majority nations like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Qatar, UAE and Syria. In the past, as the members of the Organization of Islamic Co-operation (OIC), they were not muted when Myanmar persecuted Rohingya Muslims and expelled 700,000 of them to Bangladesh. They were unequivocally releasing statements in condemnation when the Trump administration moved the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But they are almost hushed on China’s attempt to suppress Islam in Xinjiang.

Albeit, some other OIC members such as Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, and Turkey refrained from signing the statement in support of Beijing. Regardless, all Muslim majority countries have ignored the call by the UNHRC to examine the situation in Xinjiang. There are quite a few factors which may have led these countries to keep distance from criticizing China.

Some OIC members are part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and thus have their economic future linked up with China. The political cost of impeding the Uyghur issue would be too high for any of these countries to endure. The success of the BRI depends on the Xinjiang region as it is the main route to the Arabian Sea via Pakistan. Any instability here can jeopardize Beijing’s plans for trade connectivity, risk its investments and disturb all stakeholders.

Beijing remains the Arab world’s long-term consumer base for the next few decades as fluctuating oil prices and the rise of western demand for alternate energy sources endanger its economic stability.

China is also expending loans and grants to these nations. $20 billion in loans to Arab countries, $6.7 billion to Pakistan, $27 billion in projects in Kazakhstan and many other central Asian nations. China’s massive investments are bearing fruit. Beijing has effectively taken advantage of the UNHRC to endorse the very activities it was created to oppose.

Conclusion

China is not only inflicting a cultural genocide of Uyghurs, but it is also repressing other cultural and religious minorities like Christians and Hui Muslims. It continues to abuse lawyers, human rights defenders, and activists. Any activity carried out in China to advocate for social change runs the risk of harassment by Chinese authorities. Basically, anything that the government considers as a threat to itself is a crime in its perspective. The worst violation of human rights is happening right in front of us. China is actively shifting the world narrative in its favour. Regardless of power, there are consequences for challenging China. Australia found itself in a trade dispute with its largest trading partner after pushing for international scrutiny into the origins of the novel-coronavirus. Two Canadian citizens are still being held in China after Canada arrested Huawei’s CFO on behalf of the United States. Nevertheless, China has been backlashed by the global community which grows its support for defending the human rights.

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