Bosnian Serb Anger at NATO Diminishes

In this Bosnian Serb stronghold that was fed and armed by fellow Serbs in Yugoslavia during 3 1/2 years of war, the venting of fury over NATO’s airstrikes against those ethnic brothers has softened during the past two weeks from hurling bricks to lighting candles.

Emotions still run high enough to keep diplomats and businesspeople from NATO nations in exile and peacekeeping forces on high alert for provocations such as a shoulder-launched missile attack on a U.S. helicopter east of here Monday.

But the passing of time has helped dispel the initial flashes of outrage and fostered reflection on the costs of heeding radical calls for armed insurrection against the U.S.-led Stabilization Force in Bosnia, known as SFOR.

“There is no chance that the population will go back to war,” said Miodrag Zivanovic, leader of one of the more moderate political factions in the Serbian part of divided Bosnia-Herzegovina, known as Republika Srpska. “For one thing, it is physically impossible with SFOR here, and for another, memories are too fresh about how much worse it was when there was fighting.”

Protesters at nightly rallies still scream angry words at NATO, and hard-liners have tried to exploit the outpouring of sympathy for embattled Yugoslav brethren with instructions for targeting foreign troops in Bosnia and appeals for Serbs to unite to defeat NATO.

Despite the rabid propaganda telegraphed from Yugoslavia, however, the people of Banja Luka seem wholly unwilling to sacrifice their own well-being to strike a blow for unity against the forces of the world’s most powerful military alliance.

“It has been so good to have peace that we have almost forgotten about the war,” said one resident who, although worried about the risks of a prolonged clash between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Yugoslavia, conceded that there is little the Bosnian Serbs are able or willing to do about it.

“I’m very bitter--what else can I be feeling?” a young woman demanded of an American reporter. “We’re powerless, and that is not a good feeling.”

The U.S. diplomatic mission remains closed here, and foreign nationals attached to offices related to the SFOR peace enforcement mission have retreated to Muslim-Croat areas until there is full abatement of the tensions.

“What it will take is a return to a situation where criminals and fanatics are no longer a threat by their words and their deeds,” U.S. Ambassador Richard Kauzlarich said of the conditions necessary for diplomatic operations in Banja Luka to resume. “But the situation is not such yet in the Republika Srpska that we could in good faith tell Americans they can return.”

However, the Office of the High Representative, which administers Bosnia under the 1995 Dayton peace agreement, is bringing back its international staff. Five of the usual 17 foreigners have already returned to their offices here, and the rest are expected over the next week, said mission spokesman Christian Palme of Sweden.

“There have been calls for violence that we strongly condemn, but all of the recent rallies and demonstrations have been peaceful. The tension has really tapered off,” said Palme, who, like other analysts of the popular mood here, expects isolated provocation but no groundswell.

The nightly protests have gone from shouting scenes in the central square to candle-lighting prayer meetings at the Orthodox cathedral.

Even before the airstrikes, Bosnian Serbs were outraged by what they saw as Western interference in domestic politics. The Office of the High Representative nullified the elected presidency of Nikola Poplasen because of anti-democratic statements by his Radical Party, and another international offshoot of the Dayton accords ruled on the same day, March 5, that the Serb-held city of Brcko should become a neutral zone instead of part of Republika Srpska.

Those decisions outraged Bosnian Serbs, and the launch of NATO airstrikes less than three weeks later grossly eroded support for the slow but steady normalization of Bosnia.

“Many people see this war against Serbia as a war against themselves,” said Perica Vucinic, editor of the moderate Reporter newsmagazine. “It has erased the achievements of Dayton.”

Extremists opposed to the peace in Bosnia have been unable to exploit public anger over the airstrikes only because people remain too exhausted by the last conflict and are too frightened of taking on heavily armed SFOR troops to risk annihilation, Vucinic said.

Nationalist hard-liners such as Poplasen still hold the balance of power in Republika Srpska, with Western-backed figures such as Prime Minister Milorad Dodik unable to raise a voice of moderation when the very countries that helped him attain nominal power are bombing fellow Serbs in Belgrade, the Serbian and Yugoslav capital.

But Dayton’s provisions for toning down the most hostile media have made it easier for the foreign administrators to keep a lid on propaganda. Broadcasts of Yugoslavia’s nationalist Serbian TV have been shut down for the past week, preventing viewers without sophisticated satellite dishes from seeing its inflammatory reports. And local newspapers have refrained from outright instigation, aware that they can be put out of business for failing to toe the reformist line.

That has relegated the risk of conflict between Bosnian Serbs and SFOR--which many here associate with NATO, even though only half its national contingents are members of the alliance--to isolated provocations.

On Monday, a shoulder-fired rocket was aimed from a field about 25 miles east of here at a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter, forcing the pilot to take evasive action, said SFOR spokesman Cmdr. David Scanlon.

“Considering the recent political decisions and the NATO airstrikes, it’s not unexpected that some people are upset,” he said. “Tensions are high, but nothing we can’t handle.”