The denial of Bosnia /

Mahmutcehajic, Vice-President of Bosnia-Hercegovina from 1991-93 and one of the organizers of Bosnia's defense force, describes the cynical preplanned campaign of Presidents Milosevic of Serbia and Tudjman of Croatia to partition Bosnia-Hercegovina and create Greater Serbia and Greater Croatia. Since the various ethnic groups of Bosnia-Hercegovina lived together rather than in distinct communities, partition involved huge population movements, genocide, and destruction of cultural monuments, mosques, and churches to erase all traces of the "other." To justify this, the "unity in diversity" model of traditional Bosnian culture was ignored by the aggressors, as was Bosnia's early history as a kingdom, and the war was said to be a civil one rising from ancient hatreds. The Dayton Peace Agreement of 1995 avoided partition but implicitly recognized ethnic separation and territory gained by force. Mahmutcehajic believes that the fragile state established at Dayton cannot survive as an economic and political unit unless cultural unity is restored. He rejects ethnonationalism and calls for the reestablishment of ties between the different national and religious communities. This work is tightly argued and solidly based. Recommended for all libraries. E. M. Despalatovic; Connecticut College

During the past decade of warfare and atrocities in the countries that once formed Tito's Yugoslavia, much of Western public opinion was formed on the basis of exposure to fierce nationalism. Politicians such as Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic and Croatia's Franjo Tudjman dominated the news and, indeed, literally determined the fate of peoples and nations. Mahmutcehajic's passionate treatise on the history and fate of Bosnia is both a bitter denunciation of Milosevic's and Tudjman's destruction and division of Bosnia and an eloquent voice of dissent within Bosnia that has long needed to be heard. Mahmutcehajic, formerly a close ally of Bosnia-Hercegovina's president Alija Izetbegovic and a government minister in the early '90s, broke with Izetbegovic and the Muslim Party of Democratic Action over his opposition to their gradual acceptance of partitioning his country. Dividing Bosnia, he contends, represents a denial of a liberal model of unity in diversityÄone that "could act as a model for European progress." As Mahmutcehajic reviews the historical background of the Bosnian war and the events that have occurred during the country's disintegration, he offers a philosophical treatise on Bosnia's past and future and on the nature of human relations as witnessed in the Bosnian model. With references to concepts such as trust, renewal and the right to redemption, Mahmutcehajic forces readers to examine anew the nature of religious conflict in Bosnia, positing that the country's destruction was not the result of religious conflict; instead, he argues, the conflict is "a political betrayal of religion" (whose "core elements can be seen as transcending division and conflicts"). This fervent petition for dialogue and building trust is an eloquent reminder that voices of faith and hope have survived amidst the cynical barbarity and corruption in Bosnia. 20 maps and illus. not seen by PW. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved