While the dramatic horrors of Sarajevo draw the world’s attention, a subtler war of territorial thievery is going on in cities like Zvornik. Ethnic Serbs and Croats, who make up 47 percent of Bosnia, now control 95 percent of the land. “In Bosnia, two voracious combatants are chewing on a Muslim bone,” says a relief official in Belgrade. Soon, there may be nothing left to negotiate. Since the fighting began in March, Muslims have suffered the majority of deaths, anywhere from 8,000 to 50,000, and make up the bulk of Bosnia’s 1.3 million refugees. Without help from the West, they may turn to their Islamic brothers–Turkey, Saudi Arabia, even Iran.
A strange alliance that would be. Muslim Slavs, many of them fair-haired and blue-eyed, are better known for eating pork and drinking plum brandy than holding fundamentalist views. Most are of Christian origin: their Serb or Croat ancestors converted to Islam after the Ottoman Turks arrived in 1463. Muslim culture flourished–from ancient mosques, Turkish baths and covered bazaars to Muslim rock groups White Button and Hari Mata Hari. In the late 1960s, Tito recognized the Muslims as a distinct ethnic entity and encouraged ties with oil-rich Arab states to avoid the clutches of the Soviet bloc. Muslims shared political power in Belgrade and opened the Sarajevo government to multiethnic leadership. After Yugoslavia began disintegrating last summer, Bosnia was among the last to pull out. Muslims finally chose independence when it became clear that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic had no intention of protecting their rights in his quest for a Greater Serbia.
Bosnian Serbs, who boycotted the Feb. 29 vote were just as concerned about their minority rights. Convinced that Muslim President Alija Izetbegovic had plans to turn Bosnia into an Islamic state, they captured and “cleansed” Muslim and mixed villages of local civilians, just as they had in Croatia months before, installing a Serbian army and government. Croatia, meanwhile, has been making its own land grabs, seizing such Bosnian towns as Grude and Mostar to feed the growing Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosna, which has swallowed up 30 percent of the republic. Desperate for an ally, and eager to prevent more annexation of Muslim territory, Izetbegovic signed a defense pact with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, calling on Croatia to defend Bosnia if international forces fail to intervene.
The Muslims of Sarajevo aren’t waiting. Already they’ve looked east for friends. “We Muslims are at the end of our rope in Bosnia,” says Vice President Ejup Ganic, who recently went to Ankara to plead for arms, so far unsuccessfully. The Saudis have reportedly paid for Bosnia’s new currency notes but have not yet offered military assistance. Last week Iranian spiritual leader Ali Khamenei called on all Islamic nations to help Bosnia resist and accused the West of “seeking to prevent the birth of a Muslim state in the heart of Europe.” Yet Sarajevo’s best weapon may not be more powerful artillery, but the growing number of victims. The flood of Muslim refugees may persuade the European Community, as nothing else has, to step in and stop the war.
