A split in Sandzak

07/09/2010

Riots and a call for international monitors highlight tensions within the Bosniak community in Serbia's western Sandzak region.

By Igor Jovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade -- 07/09/10

Labour Minister Rasim Ljajic. [Getty Images]

The Bosniak National Council, led by Mufti Muamer Zukorlic, has urged the EU to send international monitors to Sandzak, claiming that "religious and ethnic rights" are being violated.

Monday's (September 6th) call by the council is the latest escalation in an ongoing political struggle within Sandzak's Bosniak community. Politics there has traditionally been dominated by two parties: Rasim Ljajic's Sandzak Democratic Party (SDP) and Sulejman Ugljanin's Party of Democratic Action (SDA).

Although both Ljajic and Ugljanin are cabinet ministers, their parties are at bitter odds and the quarrel has even erupted into physical clashes.

After the election for the Bosniak National Council, a non-political body, a third political force has taken shape. Zukorlic, who heads the Islamic Community, has announced he will support the formation of a new party that will strive to protect Bosniak rights.

Zukorlic accuses Ljajic and Ugljanin of neglecting the interests of the people for the sake of their ministerial posts. The two officials respond that radicalising the situation will only harm Bosniak interests and push Sandzak into economic and political isolation.

On September 4th, clashes broke out in Novi Pazar over construction of a kindergarten on a property that the Islamic Community claims belongs to it. The municipal administration, which also includes Bosniaks, says it is municipal land.

Four police officers were injured by flying rocks as riots broke out.

After the incident, the Islamic Community in Serbia called for hastening Sandzak autonomy, and urged residents to demonstrate solidarity via "civil disobedience to the regime and pro-regime political parties". It accused Belgrade of discriminating against Bosniaks and backing the parties headed by Ljajic and Ugljanin.

Meanwhile, Mufti Zukorlic invited Belgrade authorities to launch a dialogue in order to preserve peace and stability.

An official of Ljajic's party, Meho Omerovic, dismissed the idea of foreign monitors in Sandzak. "International monitors in Sandzak would not see any real problems and discrimination against Muslims, but rather the desire for power on the part of Mufti Muamer Zukorlic and the Islamic Community in Serbia," he told SETimes.

The Serbian government has not taken an official stand on the monitors, but Interior Minister Ivica Dacic says that all "open issues in Sandzak should be resolved through talks".

"The police are not here to solve religious and political problems; that is someone else's job," he added.

Ian Bancroft, founder of the Transconflict organisation, told SETimes that the Sandzak issue should be resolved primarily through agreement within the Bosniak community.

"Sandzak is almost unique in the Balkans because the primary conflict is not interethnic, but intraethnic," Bancroft said. "Zukorlic's attempts to fuse religion and politics -- as epitomised by the recent elections to the Bosniak national minority council -- pose a challenge to the stability of the region."

"In trying to shift the contours of a political space that has traditionally been dominated by the SDA and SDP, Zukorlic has made ever more vocal and divisive appeals to religious faith and symbolism," he said.

According to Bancroft, minor clashes can still be expected in Sandzak. "However, the situation ... does not parallel with Kosovo because, first, the stance and approach of Zukorlic is opposed by many Bosniaks and, second, because the Serbian government will not clampdown as Zukorlic invariably hopes," he said.

"Instead, the Serbian government -- supported by the international community, particularly the OSCE -- must work to promote civic political platforms, inter-religious dialogue and economic development," Bancroft said.