CORRESPONDENCErnLetter From Palernby Rajko DolecekrnThe War IndustryrnThere were two reasons for my visitrnto Belgrade last fall. His Beatitude, thernSerbian Orthodox patriarch Lord Paulrn(82 years old), invited me to his officialrnresidence to honor me for “my endeavourrnto interpret objectively the all-Serbianrntragedy.” I was decorated with thernOrder of St. Sava I, the highest decorationrnof the Serbian Orthodox Church.rnThe soft-spoken Lord Paul welcomedrnmy wife and me very cordially. He expressedrnhis sadness about the events inrnYugoslavia: “I experience the sufferingrnnot only of our Serbian people, but ofrnour Muslim and Croat brothers as well.”rnFrom Belgrade, we traveled as the officialrnguests to the Republika Srpska, thernSerbian part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.rnWe were surprised by the relatively goodrnquality of the road from the frontierrntown of Zvornik to Pale. The gas stationsrnwere well supplied, their prices werernmuch lower than in Germany, or in ourrnrepublic. Soon after leaving Zvornik, wernsaw many burned-down, mostly Muslimrnhouses, on both sides of the road. It wasrnthe response to the massacres of Serbs byrnthe Muslim militia, mostly from Srebrenica,rnwhich razed to the ground, duringrnless than one year (1992-93), morernthan 30 Serbian villages. The less damagedrnhouses were occupied by the Serbianrnrefugees from Sarajevo. Instead ofrnroofs, plastic sheets were used, anchoredrnby stones. Windows—except for one,rnwhich was typically covered with plasticrnsheets to let some light inside—wererncovered with planks. Glass is almostrnnonexistent here. It was raining, with arnlot of fog and mud around. At Sokolac,rnwe stopped for a while in a nice cafe—rnthe pizza there was among the best wernever had.rnOne can get from Belgrade to the municipalityrnof Pale in four to five hours. Itrnis approximately ten miles east of Sarajevo,rnwhose inhabitants used to spendrntheir weekends there before the war.rnThere are many summer residences andrnbungalows, a few hotels, restaurants,rnsmall cafes. Before the war. Pale hadrnabout 15,000 inhabitants; now there arern40,000 or more. Their numbers increasedrnmarkedly after the ethnic cleansingrnof Serbs from Sarajevo, as a consequencernof the Dayton Peace Accord.rnThere are still craters here from thernNATO bombing of civilian targets, afterrnthe Muslim-staged explosion at MarkalernIIonAugust28,1995.rnWe arrived at Pale just before nightfall,rnand our driver drove us to thernmountain hotel Bistrica near the top ofrnJahorina mountain, built for the winterrnOlympic games in 1984. In spite of thernfour years of fighting near Sarajevo, thernhotel was still in very good shape—clean,rnwarm, and with a lot of lights. Thatrnevening I received the medal of Njegos,rnfor organizing the humanitarian aid tornRepublika Srpska and for my fightrnagainst the flood of disinformation.rnWe were welcomed by the Ministerrnof Foreign Affairs of Republika Srpska,rnMr. Aleksa Buha, a university professorrnfrom Sarajevo before the war. To save hisrnlife, he had to leave his home hastily inrn1992, losing all his property. He introducedrnus to Mr. Luka Popovic, the president’srnChief of Protocol. The ceremonyrnwas short and cordial, and both Serbianrntelevision and radio covered the event.rnDuring the dinner that followed, Mr.rnBuha talked about the Dayton dictate,rnimposed on the Bosnian Serbs in thernsame way as the Munich dictate wasrnforced on Czechoslovakia in 1938. Thernloss of the Serbian parts of Sarajevornmeant a loss of 30 to 40 percent of the industrialrncapacity of Republika Srpska.rnThe plight of the Serb inhabitantsrn(70,000 to 100,000) who had to leaverntheir homes and all their property wasrnimmense. Before the war, Sarajevo wasrnthe second largest Serbian city, with onlyrna slight Muslim majority. The Daytonrndictate took away the almost ethnicallyrnpure areas around Drvar, Clamoc,rnBosansko Grahovo, where the Serbs representedrn80 to 90 percent of the wholernpopulation. There, in the Dinara mountains,rnthe United States army establishedrnits shooting ranges and training camps.rnThe Germans are also there—they committedrnmany crimes here half a centuryrnago, and nobody is embarrassed. ThernDayton Accord absolutely forgot aboutrnthe expelled Serbs from Mostar—theyrnconstituted one third of its inhabitants.rnRepublika Srpska desperately needsrncapital investments. The Yugoslav dinarsrnand the German marks are usedrnthere. “The only things we export nowrnare the timber and electricity,” said LukarnPopovic;rnFor one cubic meter of timber yournget 150 marks. If it is in planks, itrnbrings 300 marks. We have largerndeposits of bauxite, zinc, lead, andrniron. We need just the industryrnand the transport system to start.rnWe’ve got some financial helprnfrom our Serbs in Diaspora. Fromrnyour Czech government and fromrnyour various government-sponsoredrnhumanitarian organizations,rnwe did not get anything—all thernhelp went just to the Muslims.rnDuring 1993, it was mainly theirrnarmy that took most of the humanitarianrnaid. We admire the patiencernand the ability of our peoplernto survive the catastrophic circumstancesrnand the shortage of almostrneverything. How to employ therndemobilized young men, what torngive to the refugees, invalids, to thernold people? Where could we getrnmoney to buy the indispensablernmedical supplies? You cannot realizernhow many people, especiallyrnchildren and the elderly, died inrnour republic as a consequence ofrnsanctions, especially when we werernexpelled together with the FederalrnRepublic of Yugoslavia from thernWorld Health Organization [inrn1993].rnThe next day, we went to the modestrnone-story government building in therncenter of Pale. There I received a phonerncall from the dean of the new medicalrnschool at Srbinje (previously Foca). Itrnwas Professor B. Starovie’, the famousrnplastic surgeon who used to live in Sarajevornbefore the war. I promised him arnfew lectures for his medical students thernnext spring. In the courtyard we met Mr.rnV. Vucurevic, the living legend of Herzegovina,rnwhere he successfully defendedrnhis town Trebinje against Croat aggres-rnJUNE 1997/39rnrnrn