Should Bosniaks Oppose Serb Secession?

Bosnian Muslim boy Asmir Karalic, who lost his uncle, stands near coffins during a mass funeral in Brcko, 90 kms North of Sarajevo, on Saturday, June 16, 2007. Up to 10,000 people attended the funeral Saturday of 80 civilian victims of wartime Serb ethnic cleansing in the northeast Bosnian city of Brcko. The bodies were among the 277 found last year in a mass grave near Brcko. They were Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats killed in 1992, at the beginning of the war.

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Bosnia's Muslim and Croats have harshly criticized a Serbian proposal that they fear may lead to the division of the country in the form of a secession of the Serb-majority territories in Bosnia to from a Serb Republic (if not join Serbia, which is more likely).

The proposed law put forth by Serbians is a simple referendum law that would allow anything to be decided by ballot if decreed by parliament. Such a law is akin to Canada's referendums on Quebec's independence, and the one in the 1990s came very close to the devision of that nation.

The law in question though would only be a referendum law that would apply to the Serb enclave in Bosnia, so only that part of the nation would vote on the question of secession. If it required a nation-wide vote then there would be no fear of secession since Muslims constitute a plurality in the country and can easily block it by vote. But this law is akin to only the people of Quebec, instead of all of Canada, being allow to vote if Quebec should be its own country.

And it is in this regard that the Muslims living in that Serb enclave are opposed to the law. They make up the minority there and fear losing their Bosnian nationality in what they perceive to be an unfair referendum law that would make them of Serbia - a nation that has prosecuted them in the past. Including in the worst massacre on European soil since the Holocaust at Serbrenica.

Muslims in the ethnically Serb part of Bosnia will block a government law that could lead to secession of the Serb Republic, community leaders said Monday.

Edin Ramic, chairman of the Muslim group in the Serb Republic's parliament, told reporters that a referendum law passed earlier in February violated his community's 'vital national interests.'

Ramic said that changes to the referendum law would be necessary to make it acceptable to the Muslim community.

'It is necessary to precisely say which questions can be asked on a referendum and are in line with the Serb Republic authorities and which cannot and deal with the territorial integrity and safety of Bosnia,' Ramic said.

I am not well-informed enough on this issue, but I think Muslims should not mind the secession and simply work to make Bosnia better. Bosnia is no longer a nation, it is now divided and there is no unifying nationalism. There is no need to force such a unity when the Serbs do not want it. Muslims could simply stay in the new Serb republic, which is what it is now in essence, or move to Bosnia.

After all the fighting, division of peoples may be the best outcome and then one hopes they can become good neighbors along the border.