As Tensions Threaten to Split the Country, Bosnians Hold Their Breath
NEED TO KNOW
As Tensions Threaten to Split the Country, Bosnians Hold Their Breath
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
Thousands gathered in Srebrenica last month to mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide committed by Bosnian Serbs against their Muslim neighbors in the former Yugoslav republic.
In the Guardian, photographers chronicled the somber monuments and traumatic legacy among families of the almost 10,000 people killed in the city as Yugoslavia broke apart and Bosnian Serbs pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing.
“I survived the last war,” Fahrudin, who was 18 when he was forced to abandon his home on a remote homestead because of the war but recently returned with his family, told the newspaper. “I survived a concentration camp, and I survived genocide.”
Bosnia and Herzegovina today is a patchwork of Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian communities that have achieved some peace.
Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, who led the Bosnian Serbs in the bloody campaign in the 1990s, were sentenced to life in prison for their war crimes, including crimes against humanity like the Srebrenica genocide, reported Hurriyet Daily News, an English-language, Turkey-based outlet.
Karadžić is now serving time in a British prison. Mladić is imprisoned in a detention center in The Hague, the home of the Dutch government and the International Court of Justice, where, as the Irish Times noted, he has been exercising his right to appeal his conviction.
Many Bosnian Serbs are still at odds with their Bosnian compatriots, however.
Bosnia and Herzegovina emerged from the horrors of the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s with a political form that was prescribed by the 1995 Dayton peace agreement, which was both a peace deal and a blueprint for the state.
To accommodate, rather than solve, the tensions between the three main ethnic groups – Bosniak Muslims, Serbs, and Croats – the state was divided into two entities: the Serb-majority Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Both parts of the country hold considerable autonomous powers, but are bridged by weak federal political institutions. Like many power-sharing deals, Dayton ended the fighting but failed to build an integrated state, and the Republika Srpska is often at odds with its counterpart.
In August, Milorad Dodik, president of Republika Srpska, was sentenced to one year in jail, stripped of his office by a Bosnian court in the capital of Sarajevo, and banned from politics for six years for his separatist actions – he wants his region to join Serbia. An appeals court reduced the sentence to a fine but upheld his ouster from office.
Even so, Dodik, who denies the genocide and says the number of victims is overstated, has been taking measures to remain in office. He has vowed to challenge the court with a referendum in his region that might lead to an independent Republika Srpska, a move backed by Serbia. Now, new elections to replace him must be held by November.
Meanwhile, he has announced legislative amendments making participation in the organization of elections a criminal act and forbidding schools and cultural centers from serving as polling stations. Also, the ruling SNSD party will boycott the vote, he said, and then the entity will hold a series of referenda – on the authority of the state-level court, the international community’s peace overseer, and the “fateful” question of independence for Republika Srpska.
That has Bosnians holding their breath, Balkan Insight explained.
“After more than a quarter of a century calling the political shots in the predominantly Serb-populated entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dodik isn’t going quietly,” it wrote. “Instead, the man once welcomed by the West as a liberal light among Bosnian Serb nationalists has vowed to do everything in his power to thwart the holding of elections to replace him.”
Analysts who spoke to European Western Balkans, a think tank publication, were skeptical of the legality of an independence referendum. But others at the International Crisis Group worried about a potential “national collapse” in the face of multiple separatist movements.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina (or Bosnia) is facing a critical test of its ability to survive intact as a state,” it wrote. “While tensions between the (Republika Srpska) and Sarajevo are longstanding, national collapse may be closer than ever before.”
Already, it’s impacting the business of governance.
Political disputes within Bosnia’s complicated, ethnic-based, power-sharing agreement have prevented leaders from adopting a government budget for the past eight months, for example, the Sarajevo Times wrote.
Now, the country will have to make a decision about its future, analysts say.
“Bosnia is at a crossroads,” wrote the Conversation. “Internally divided over whether populations see their future in their past, retaining a semi-autocratic, ethno-nationalist government, or whether they see their future as a democratic, accountable, and multiethnic state. Either way may spell turbulent times ahead.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
India Hit with Punishing US Tariffs for Buying Russian Oil
INDIA
US tariffs of 50 percent on some Indian goods took effect Wednesday, weeks after US President Donald Trump ordered an additional 25 percent penalty on New Delhi in response to its continued purchase of Russian oil and weapons, the BBC reported.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to remain resolute in the face of what he called “economic selfishness.” He invited people to become self-reliant and urged small business owners to put up “Swadeshi” or “Made in India” signs outside their stores.
While stock markets were closed in India on Wednesday due to a public holiday, Modi vowed to protect the country’s farmers and small businesses, NBC News wrote.
An Indian government source also told Reuters that they aim to increase shipments of textiles, leather, gems, and jewelry to other countries, while likely providing financial assistance to affected businesses.
A major hurdle in the five rounds of inconclusive tariff negotiations between New Delhi and Washington ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline has been the US push for greater access to India’s expansive agricultural and dairy markets.
Further trade negotiations were scheduled for earlier this week, but they have been called off.
Modi is also facing domestic pressure not to surrender to US demands, but Trump is unlikely to ease his insistence that India halt its Russian oil purchases, as he recently turned his attention to brokering peace in Ukraine.
According to Eric Garcetti, the US ambassador to India under President Joe Biden, India continued buying Russian oil in line with past US requests aimed at keeping global oil prices low amid Western sanctions on Russia.
Now, India is paying a steep price for that policy.
One of the US’s strongest partners in the Indo-Pacific, India is now one of the countries facing the highest tariffs in the world. The higher tax could significantly undermine exports and stall growth in the world’s fifth-largest economy, considering that the US was, until recently, India’s largest trading partner.
The tariffs mark a sharp reversal from the favorable standing India appeared to hold at the start of Trump’s second term due to its growing economic ties with the US, its strategic value in countering the rise of China, and the personal relationship between Trump and Modi.
Denmark Summons US Envoy Over Alleged Greenland Influence Ops
GREENLAND
Denmark summoned the top US diplomat in Copenhagen on Wednesday after a state media report alleged that American citizens with ties to President Donald Trump carried out covert operations to influence Greenland’s political status, Politico reported.
The Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) said domestic intelligence had discovered at least three individuals working on “influence operations” in the Danish territory.
The state broadcaster reported that the operation was aimed at driving a wedge between Denmark and Greenland. The Trump administration has said it wants Greenland to become part of the United States and even threatened to use military force to make sure that happens.
According to the report, one of the individuals compiled lists of potential allies and opponents of US influence, while two others maintained political and business ties on the Arctic island.
It is unclear whether the three acted independently or under the direction of US officials.
Still, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen warned that any attempt to interfere in Denmark’s internal affairs “will obviously be unacceptable.” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen echoed his remarks.
In response, White House officials said they could not confirm the allegations and urged Denmark “to calm down,” the BBC wrote. The US State Department also did not comment on “the actions of private US citizens in Greenland,” but insisted that Washington had always respected the right of the people of Greenland to “determine their own future.”
The controversy marks the second time this year Denmark summoned the US diplomat over spying in Greenland.
The row also underscored the ongoing tensions between the two allies over Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory with extensive but mostly untapped mineral and oil resources, USA Today noted.
The Trump administration has long viewed Greenland as strategically important, given its Arctic location and rare-earth deposits, which are vital to consumer electronics. Danish and Greenlandic leaders, however, insist the island is not for sale.
Danish intelligence said Greenland “is the target of influence campaigns of various kinds” and confirmed it has increased monitoring in cooperation with local authorities.
Police Seizure of Haitian Hub from Gangs Marks Rare Victory for Authorities
HAITI
Haitian police recaptured a vital telecommunications hub from heavily armed gangs this week, marking a significant and rare operational success for the authorities, Africanews reported.
The operation started before dawn Monday at the Téléco site in Kenscoff, once a quiet neighborhood in the metropolitan area of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and continued for about two hours.
According to Michel-Ange Louis Jeune, spokesperson for Haiti’s National Police, after overpowering the gang members, officers seized a large stockpile of weapons, including automatic rifles with erased serial numbers, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
The operation marks a rare victory for Haitian authorities and the United Nations-backed mission led by Kenyan police, who have struggled to curb the powerful gangs vying for dominance over Port-au-Prince, the Associated Press wrote.
Police described the successful raid as a clear statement of intent from the new commander, André Jonas Vladimir Paraison.
The hub had been seized last week by Viv Ansanm, a powerful gang federation, which this year was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the US. It had briefly halted internet services and air traffic control but officials later said the impact on aviation was minimal.
In a video, a gang member identified as Didi threatened the government, saying it had less than a week to negotiate or he would “burn the entire system down,” without specifying any demands.
Footage also showed gang members dismantling servers and motherboards.
The group is known for targeting critical infrastructure, having previously shut down Haiti’s main international airport for months and stormed prisons, freeing 4,000 inmates last year.
Despite this important tactical victory, the Haitian population is still in danger, and the Kenscoff area remains unsafe.
The ongoing crisis surrounding gang control was underscored in August by the abduction of eight people from the local Saint-Hélène orphanage, including an Irish missionary and a three-year-old child, CNN noted.
Authorities still don’t know what happened to them, which stands as a reminder of the gang’s pervasive control over the country and the serious challenge Haitian authorities and their international partners have to face.
At least 175 people were reportedly kidnapped in Haiti from April to the end of June this year. Thirty-seven percent of those abductions happened in Port-au-Prince, where gangs are estimated to control 90 percent of the area.
DISCOVERIES
Hide and Seek
Humans maintain a mental map of their loved ones’ whereabouts, keeping track of them whether they are nearby or far away.
Living in dense forests, bonobos and chimps benefit from mentally tracking their friends and family members, too.
“People think social intelligence is a thing that makes humans unique, that because we have to manage so many different relationships, we might have a range of cognitive tools for doing so that will only be found in an ultra-social species like humans,” Chris Krupenye, author of a new study, said in a statement.
“Most of us who study apes have a strong intuition that because the social world is so important for them, too, they must, like humans, be keeping track of these critical social partners,” said Krupenye. “They must share with us at least the foundations of our rich social intelligence.”
To learn more about this, researchers conducted experiments inspired by hide-and-seek with a bonobo named Kanzi: Kanzi watched two familiar caregivers hide behind different objects that blocked them from view. Then, a researcher would show Kanzi a photo of one of the caregivers and ask him to indicate where they were hiding. The test was repeated multiple times with variations.
The researchers found that bonobos are capable of mentally keeping track of multiple humans at once, even when they are out of sight.
“Kanzi very quickly understood the task and performed well,” said study author Luz Carvajal in the statement.
Then, the team changed the experiment to see if Kanzi could identify the caregivers by the sound of their voices.
The caregivers hid behind barriers without letting the bonobo see where they were hiding. Once hidden, they each said, “Hi Kanzi,” so he could hear where the sound was coming from. Afterward, the experimenter showed Kanzi a photo of one of the caregivers asking him to point to where they were.
“Here he also performed (beyond a lucky guess) and especially well with one of his two caregivers,” Carvajal said. “He does have the capacity to use voice as a marker for identity. This face matches this voice.”
Despite some mistakes, the results show Kanzi’s core ability to mentally track and distinguish the locations of multiple familiar individuals at once.
Previous research by the same team had already discovered that bonobos and chimpanzees can remember the faces and vocalizations of familiar groupmates they haven’t seen in many years.
This new study is the first to test if bonobos can track multiple individuals at the same time in a controlled environment, confirming hypotheses from field research.
“Across these studies, the results suggest that Kanzi has a memory of these individuals that brings together their vocal and visual identities,” said Krupenye. “If he hears them, he might imagine what they look like. If he sees them, he might bring to mind an idea of what they sound like. We think this is one integrated memory.”